The Greensboro City Council learned more about economic development at the work session on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
This was the second work session the City Council has held this month on economic development and part of the focus was on what the city had accomplished.
It was revealed at the work session that Planning Director Sue Schwartz is in charge of economic development for the City of Greensboro, an unusual if not unprecedented arrangement.
In the presentation Schwartz gave to the City Council, she noted that Greensboro had attracted a total of 265 new jobs in the past year.
Schwartz said, “We had a banner year.”
If Greensboro a city of 300,000 people has a “banner year” when it attracts 265 new jobs, it’s hard to come up with the words to describe the year Graham is having since it was announced this month that Graham had just landed a UPS facility that will bring 451 new jobs to that Alamance County town of 15,000.
Or what kind of year Whitsett is having since in the past three months that Guilford County town with a population of 628 announced that a new Amazon facility would bring 100 to 200 jobs and a Prepac Manufacturing facility would bring over 200 jobs to the town.
For Whitsett, those announcements based on population would be like Greensboro announcing it had attracted about 150,000 new jobs.
The City Council then discussed making it more difficult for new industries to locate here by requiring that they pay a minimum of $15 an hour to qualify for incentives.
The council discussed the fact that looking at average salaries could be skewed by the high salaries of top management.
Councilmember Michelle Kennedy said, “If we are going to say $15 an hour, I want it to mean $15 an hour.”
Councilmember Tammi Thurm suggested that rather than set a specific rate the minimum salary be linked to the minimum salary paid by the city, which is currently $15 an hour, but is expected to increase.
Councilmember Yvonne Johnson suggested that the City Council consider all of the college students in town looking for jobs and said, “If it’s $14, we need to talk about it.”
The cost per job is about $10,088. The only way I can think of it as a “banner year”, is if they are raising the hammer & sickle. Any business that is smart (as many of them), will locate out of the city, and probably to another county. Whitsett and Graham are near the interstate, GSO, and RDU. Much lower costs of doing business. Good for them.
The city extorts 2.67 mil from the taxpayer to bribe five businesses. How about all the other businesses that didn’t get a dime of taxpayer money, EXCEPT to money that they EARNED by offering competitive goods and services? The city council doesn’t have a clue. The only reference book or instruction they have is the Democrat Playbook (see on line).
How about we stop bribing business to locate here, and instead offer them a low tax rate, and a good employee base?
Ahhh yes, government at its best. The City reducing their revenues by more than $2.5MM, that’s over $10,000 per job promised (not actually created) with a whopping value of 50 bucks to the City. The taxpaying public loses everything! I remember my 1st big government meeting. There were all grades of high level folks there and I made lots of new friends when I pointed out the absurdity of John Q. Public spending roughly $2,000/hr. for us to discuss a matter of exactly $1.50. Yes, one dollar and fifty cents. Make sure you all vote! Vote out as much of the waste as you can. I gave up on the other parts long ago. If they’re a politician they will lie and they’re all about back scratching, some are just more transparent about it. Think about it this way, 3 quarters and 9 commissioners won’t add up to a dollar.
Love that. Problem is, who lives within they city, and how do they vote?
I love the $15/hr. argument. It is even worse within government. When I started the beginning pay was just under $13/hr., shortly thereafter overtime was cut out, and raises ceased for many years. Now kids coming in the door start between $20-$25/hr. depending on qualifications while I have worked my tail off for nearly 20 years just to get to $29/hr. So, I bust my butt twice as hard, put in long shifts and these same kids complain that the old guy makes $100k when they themselves won’t put in the overtime. They just feel entitled to it. Raising the minimum wage just compresses everyone elses pay even more. The only true answer is the Fair Tax. NO income tax, NO payroll taxes, but increased sales taxes. The more you buy, the more you pay, whether you get the money legally or illegally, whether you make $10/hr. or $1,000/hr. you pay when you buy goods and services. Everybody wins. More money in the pockets of responsible adults, more to the governments, less to those who now consume more than they contribute!
Greensboro does need a new city council. Is there anyone on it that has worked in private sector? Reason I’m asking is they don’t mind spending money or telling a private business how much they have to spend to get a pat on the head from the council.