#ncga: Are you ready for some welfare? (Corporate welfare, that is. $45 MILLION.)
The “conservative revolution” rolls on. We’ve obtained a draft of a bill (dated February 4) being drafted and pushed 
by legislative leaders (read REPUBLICANS) seeking $45 million bucks worth of corporate welfare from my wallet and yours.
Last session, rebellious elements within the House Republican caucus derailed an effort to hand over $20 million worth of welfare to the Department of Commerce. NOW, the goal appears to be DOUBLE the amount of welfare that got shot down last year.
We’re talking about the quaintly-titled “North Carolina Competes Act” that amends Section 15.19(a1) of SL 2013-360. It is our understanding that this effort is being driven by aides to the governor and legislative leaders. Democrats — and most other legislators — have not been party to this drafting effort.
Here are some of the juicy details:
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
2 AN ACT TO ENACT THE NORTH CAROLINA COMPETES ACT.
3 The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
4
5 PART I. JDIG MODIFICATIONS
6 SECTION 1.(a) Section l 5. I9(a I) of S.L. 2013-360 reads as rewritten:
- “SECTION 15.(al) Notwithstanding G.S. 143B-437.52(c), for the 201 3 201 5 fiscal
- biennium,period from July 2013. to December 31. 2015. the maximum total liability for
- grants awarded, including amounts transferred to the Utility Account pursuant to GS 143B-437.61, is
twenty two million five hundred thousand dollars ($22,500,000) and, for the period from July 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, the maximum total liability for grants awarded, including amounts transferred to the Utility Account pursuant to G.S. l43B 4 37.61, isseven million fiye hundred thousand dollars ($7,500,000).forty-five million dollars- ($45.000.000). No agreement may be entered into that, when considered together with other 15 existing agreements governing grants awarded during an applicable time period provided in this subsection, could cause the State’s potential total annual liability for grants awarded in that time period to exceed the designated maximum amount.” […]
O-KAY. For those of you keeping score at home, JDIG translates to “Job Development Investment Grants.” And we are being told that gas taxes need to be raised because there is simply NO MONEY to pay for all of these transportation projects General Tata and Governor McCrory want to kick off.
The amendment fun and games don’t stop there: 
SECTION 1.(c) G.S. 1438-437.62 reads as rewritten:
Ҥ 143B-437.62. Expiration.
- The authority of the Committee to award new grants expires January 1,
2016. 2020.- SECTION 1.(d) The Reviser of Statutes shall make the conforming statutory
- changes necessary to the General Statutes to reflect renaming of the Job Development
- Investment Grant Program to the Job Creation Reimbursement Plan (Jobs and PayrolI Based),
- as provided in this section.
SECTION 1.(e) This Part is effective when it becomes law.
Ah. From JDIG to JCRP-(J&PB). *That ought to fool the rubes outside the Beltline.* I hope this warms your heart and makes you feel better as you pay those higher gas taxes for that road construction we, um, can’t afford.
I think we’re going to get in on this revisin’ and amendin’ game: You know, you can put lipstick on a pig welfare, but it’s still a pig welfare.
The One North Carolina Fund — the slush fund that doles out goodies to companies in exchange for the governor being the first to announce the economic development deal and take credit for it — is also getting renamed. It will go from the One North Carolina Fund to the Job Creation Reimbursement Plan (Capital Investment Based).
Corporate welfare is as disgusting as other types of welfare. Sleazy companies shake down states to get it, and states prostitute themselves to the system by granting it.
This is not only terribly unfair to the taxpayers who have to fund this sleaze, but also to honest businesses which don’t play this bandit game. These honest existing businesses have to pay the full freight for their operation while their competitors are getting subsidized by government. That stinks and it is downright un-American. Government should maintain a level playing field not try to advantage some businesses over others.
What has become particularly troublesome is the tendency of some large existing businesses to threaten to move to another state which will give them a subsidy if the state they are already in does not subsidize them. That is nothing but extortion and corporate executives involved should be prosecuted criminally for it.
This is going to take a federal solution. One would be federal law banning states from engaging in corporate welfare. Another would be for the federal government to tax corporations on any corporate welfare received at, say, 99.9%, or heck, even 105%. That should shut down this corporate welfare scam which is a burden on taxpayers and a threat to free enterprise.
The vote on this legislation will separate the genuine free enterprise supporting Limited Government Republicans from the Big Government corporate welfare special interest Republicans. The latter should be targeted in 2016 primaries, because they are more undocumented Democrats than real Republicans.
You left out a critical piece of information: who are the Progressive Republicans that voted for the bill?
Out the little cronies so we can find Conservatives to primary their corrupt asses.
If you’re interested in the history behind the GOP’s present intra-party cat fight, this article is worth the read:
“The Republican Party Is Not Your Friend” by Jay Cost, February 11, 2015
“The roots of the Republican Party’s conservative-establishment divide, revealed.”
http://thefederalist.com/2015/02/11/the-republican-party-is-not-your-friend/
And nowhere is there the requirement that the jobs go to Americans.
McCrory seems to be in bed with the Indian outsourcing tech companies, as evidenced by the following and another recent deal with a similar company in Charlotte that would bring in H-1B visa holders rather than employ Americans.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/09/18/4161026_it-services-company-hcl-adding.html?rh=1
So, Americans get double-screwed, by coughing up the tax incentives, then having the incentivized jobs go to foreign guest workers.