The Greensboro City Council continued indefinitely a new policy on granting economic incentives to attract new companies and jobs to Greensboro and to keep the companies here from leaving.
The Economic Development Incentive Policy that was on the agenda for the Tuesday, Feb. 16 City Council meeting did not have a requirement that Councilmember Sharon Hightower wanted included on the list, so the policy was continued until the legal department can formulate that policy in proper legal terminology and the council can hold a work session to discuss the proposed new policy with the Hightower amendment.
Hightower asked that a requirement be added that when a company comes to one of the Economic Impact Zones, it be required to hire 10 percent of its workforce from the two Impact Zones that are primarily in East Greensboro.
Mayor Nancy Vaughan spoke in favor of this plan saying, “We don’t want to do all the economic incentives and have them hire people from High Point and Burlington.”
Vaughan also said, “Maybe 10 percent is not high enough.”
Hightower said, “I’d love for it to be 40 percent or 30 percent.”
Councilmember Michelle Kennedy suggested adding a “community benefits agreement.”
The new Economic Development Incentives Policy already includes minimum wage requirements and stringent Minority and Women’s Business Enterprise (MWBE) requirements.
The company seeking economic incentives must agree to use the Greensboro MWBE office to set the goals for any construction and must submit an MWBE compliance report quarterly during construction to Greensboro’s MWBE office “verifying expenditures with certified M/WBE firms towards the total MBE and WBE subcontracting expenditure goals.”
Why doesn’t Council just municipalize all private enterprise within City Limits?
Then they can manage 5 and 10 Year Plans to the envy of the old Soviet Dictators.
Attagirls!
Im sure any good businessperson would be foaming at the mouth to be a part of that plan!Somebody should tell Kim Jong-un about this!!
I guess it doesn’t matter whether people are qualified for the jobs or not. Just as long as they live in a certain area. This council is unbelievable in their disconnect with the average person who pays taxes.
This does nothing but assure higher costs for the work as it decreases competition and puts additional paperwork demands on the contractors. Just let the competitive market system work and stop handcuffing contractors with these ridiculous requirements. Remember that saving tax dollars should be the most important consideration.
I thank the lord I am not a business man trying to bring jobs and tax revenue to Greensboro. Based on the comments above and existing requirements one can only imagine why anyone would create a business or bring one to Greensboro.
The more restrictions you place on developers, the more they will go elsewhere. If I can pay employees $10 outside of Greensboro, but the council wants me to pay $15 an hour to get approval for my venture in Greensboro, what do you expect me to do? Yes, that’s right. . . . .I’ll go elsewhere.
These council members have never, never, taken a course in economics and specifically the law of supply and demand. If they did, then they forgot what they were taught.
Vote them out on the next election.
Why doesn’t the city have the most economically minded people on the council (maybe there are not enough people on the council smart enough) to come up with a sensible presentation.Also maybe that is why you spend So Much on consulting fees .Also with a board with all Democrats have no understanding of how to make decisions that are for the people.I don’t mean adding more taxes ,you already know how to do that.You never consider the worker who is working to feed a family and pay these exhorbant amount of taxes that you put on them .
This is a great plan. Finally, we can bring an end to economic incentives.
I’ll give the Council credit for one thing:
There’s something on every agenda dumber than the last one. Maybe they’re trying to win some award for waste & stupidity?
We the people want you out asap and the others too. We need new ideas and younger people not the same old same old .
Hire all the homeless people- put them to work, if they are willing to work.