N.C. town sweetens pot for an Apple move
The town of Maiden, N.C., really wants Apple to build its data center there.
In addition to the state's promise of an estimated tax break of $46 million over the next 10 years, Maiden and Catawba County are promising Apple a further $20.7 million if the company brings the data center to the town, according to an Associated Press report. The additional tax breaks would also run over the 10 years of the Apple contract.
Scott Millar, president of the Catawba County Economic Development Corp., said the county expects to collect $9.3 million in taxes over the 10 years, according to the AP.
North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue signed a bill approving the tax break in early June. The state said the Apple server farm would have about 50 full-time employees, and one of the regulations that Apple would have to follow is that the average wage in the facility exceed the wage standard in the county where it's located.
The tax incentives for Apple were not without opponents. House Minority Leader Rep. Paul Stam was clearly upset with the incentives.
"They're playing us," Stam said in late May. "And they're going to keep playing us as long as you agree to be played. They'll either come or they won't come, but whether they come I can virtually assure you it will not depend upon whether you pass this bill."
Stam wasn't only referring to Apple. In 2007, Google signed a deal with North Carolina worth $600 million to open a server farm in the state for a promised $260 million worth of incentives over 30 years.
Jim Dalrymple has followed Apple and the Mac industry for the last 15 years, first as part of MacCentral and then in various positions at Macworld. A guitar player for 20 years, Jim also writes about the professional audio market, examining the best ways to write and record songs on a Macintosh with Logic Pro and Pro Tools. Jim is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
I live in NC, actually right next to Catawba County and we have been hit hard over the last few years with Job Losses, but this is sheer stupidity. Google and Apple introduce a small number of jobs and we basically hand them a blank check.
Meanwhile, Cisco and IBM each create over 10K jobs in the state and they get handed a tax bill. At least in the Dell project, there were almost 2000 Full-time and direct jobs and the incentives are keyed to those numbers.
I know we are trying to grow NC beyond its roots in manufacturing and agriculture, but this makes no sense. It is pandering and fiscal irresponsibility at it's finest.
- Mass just raised the sales tax 25% so we could avoid a hike in the gas tax...which is back on the table and still may happen anyway...
- We voted to bring down a "temporary emergency" increase in the income tax several years ago...the legislature ignored the voters and is now talking about hitting us with a graduated (read: HIGHER for those who produce) state income tax...
- Any business with 10 people or more MUST provide health insurance. If you as a person don't have health insurance, you pay a penalty (so you basically have to PAY for the privilege to live in Massachusetts now)...and the MA health insurance system is bankrupt yet the pols won't dare touch it...or the toll-takers or other hack-a-rama workers in the state agencies...
- One candidate for State Treasurer has declared that he expects the Fed to bail out the state with more stimulus because it's the Fed's job to do so...(!!??)
So...Come to Massachusetts while we rearrange the deck chairs for you! We're not only the place where clueless pols (Hi Barney!) get elected, and we're not just political hack friendly and business friendly...we're also people friendly! Ask anyone who's been to the DMV...oh, wait, they just raised fees and still closed branches? Never mind.
You sound like the famous conservative of Boston - Charles Emerson Winchester III, M.D.
Economists are you?
Every corporation does this same pattern, yet the clueless local city and county governments fall for it hook, line and sinker.
The likely reasoning behind this deal from Apple to NC is that they want to hold California hostage for some tax breaks by threatening to move some operations to NC.
No one is giving Apple money, the local governments are simply offering to charge Apple less money.
LA USED to do this for the film industry, but they no longer do, hence, no movies made here.
You want to see the other side of NOT giving tax breaks?
I do - my wife is in that industry, and it's been all but killed-off here.
While the City can Charge one Tax Paying entity less, they still have to cover all the services.
So even if they arn't giving Apple money, they are going to have to take it from someone else to make up the shortfall.
You are assuming the taxes paid by that company go directly back to the company which is false. That makes the rest of your argument fall apart.
What's Apple going to do with the savings? Put it n it's 401K for when it retires?
- by shycelticwitch July 8, 2009 12:10 PM PDT
- You can't stop progress. It wouldn't matter if this were Apple or IBM. The fact is jobs are needed. NOW. One less person out of work is one less burden on the welfare system. Technology certainly isn't going backwards, and you can't predict what will become of this venture in the future by what other companies have done in the past.
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- by shycelticwitch July 8, 2009 1:17 PM PDT
- PS... while I was paying my own way through college, I worked nights and weekends at a uniform laundry service. When I started my own business, I was working at a stable shoveling unowhat 9 hours a day, 6 days a week. If you can walk, talk and otherwise function as a normal human being, than no job is "beneath you".
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- by Renegade Knight July 8, 2009 2:45 PM PDT
- I'm sick of subisdizing corporate welfare. I'd rather my money went elsewhere.
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(25 Comments)The argument that only a handful of highly paid admins will benefit from this is baseless. Certainly there will be some high salaries paid for knowledge and skill (which makes it an earned salary), but many others will benefit from simply having an income.
Average American Joe Plumber will refuse to work at hard labor ($12 an hour picking tomatoes in FL is a pretty good wage for ANY labor) because he's been brainwashed to believe that kind of work is for low-lifers. But he'll work for $7 at a hamburger joint because its air conditioned and the physical labor is minimal.
So as far as I am concerned, if a business in this country wants to provide a few more AC jobs that will get a few more able bodies off the welfare rolls, by all means give them whatever incentives they need to get it done. I am sick and tired of supporting those who WON'T work because they can't have the "dream job" they want.
Apples version of "Giving back" was money thrown to one side of a controversial ballot issue in CA. They could better give back by stepping up to the plate and paying their share of tax without special treatment in the community they choose to live in. You know act like a citizen and do their part. If by chance Town A is a better fit than Town B without asking for special treatment then by all means build in Town B.