How does Greensboro compare to other cities in the state as far as economic development goes?
This was a question asked by City Councilmember Justin Outling during the City Council work session on economic development on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
What follows is a list from the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC) and the industries EDPNC has helped attract to North Carolina in 2020. For example, Greensboro lists 265 new jobs this year, but only 141 are on the EDPNC list because the only one of those economic development agreements that the EDPNC was involved in was the expanded UPS facility.
The list by the date of the press release is from the EDPNC website of the jobs it has been involved in recruiting to North Carolina this year.
Jan. 13: Sara Lee Frozen Bakery with an investment of $19.8 million will bring 108 jobs to Edgecombe County.
Jan. 21: Eli Lilly with an investment of $470 million will bring 460 jobs to Durham.
Feb. 18: Audentes Therapeutics with an investment of $100 million will bring 209 jobs to Sanford in Lee County
There is a big break here for COVID-19. Just another indication of how devastating that has been to the economy.
June 2: GRAIL with an investment of $100 million will bring 398 jobs to Durham.
June 9: Grifols Therapeutics with an investment of $352 million will bring 300 jobs to Clayton in Johnston County.
June 9: Prime Beverage Group with an investment of $68 million will bring 231 jobs to Kannapolis in Cabarrus County.
July 1: Centene Corporation with an investment of $1 billion will bring 3,237 jobs to Charlotte.
Aug. 11: Beam Therapeutics with an investment of $83 million will bring 201 jobs to Durham County
Sept. 30: Nestle Purina PetCare Company with an investment of $450 will bring 300 jobs to Rockingham County.
Oct. 13: UPS with an investment of $54 million will bring 141 jobs to Greensboro
Oct. 13: UPS with an investment of $262 million will bring 451 jobs to Graham in Alamance County
Oct. 13: Benestar Brands with an investment of $24 million will bring 129 jobs to Kings Mountain in Cleveland County.
Oct. 22: Pratt & Whitney with an investment of $650 million will bring 800 jobs to Asheville.
On the EDPNC list, Greensboro fared much better than its two neighbors – High Point and Winston-Salem – but not nearly as well as Durham and Charlotte.
For some reason, an announcement on Jan. 7 that LLFlex would be investing $7.6 million that will bring 46 jobs to High Point is not on the list even though EDPNC was involved.
$470 Mil for 460 jobs? 450 Mil for 300 jobs? $100 mil for 209 jobs works out to $478,468 per job. Is everyone crazy? It is our money that is bribing these corporations.
Eli Lilly is the company that prices $180 for a 10ml bottle of Insulin. And the city of Durham gives them $470 mil to move part of their operations to the city? Many folks everywhere are subject to this kind of price-gouging, and we are encouraging it.
There is no end to it. We are all becoming slaves to Big Business + Big Govt = Big Brother.
Just make me King of the USA, I’ll put a stop to this c^*p.