You know that I am a big supporter of the New Brunswick goverment being competitive on business incentives. I don’t buy the notion that we can’t ‘compete’ with other provinces or states for incentives.
However, I also believe that incentives need to be tied to an economic payback to the taxpayer. For example, if the government provides a company $15k/job for ‘training’ or a tax break that’s worth $5 million, it should be based on a 3-5 year payback in incremental taxes paid to the public purse.
Sometimes, jurisdictions go way overboard.
According to articles in local South Carolina newspapers, it appears that Google was secretly granted as much as a quarter billion dollars in tax breaks, which was more than first reported . That amounts to more than $1 million dollars for each of the 210 jobs created, paid to Google courtesy of NC taxpayers.
Now, you will recall that I grumbled when New Brunswick offered Molson $100k per job for their Moncton plant. I thought that was way over the top. Well, $1 million per job, must be some form of record.