Friday, January 19, 2007

IT'S OFFICIAL! GOOGLE COMING TO CALDWELL

And the guv gets to make the announcement.

$100 million in tax breaks to the company, in exchange for 210 jobs and up to $600 million invested by Google in Caldwell.

At least one Lenoir city councilman was not drunk when the incentives package was voted on (the city council agreed -- get this! -- "to waive 100 percent of Google's business property taxes and 80 percent of its real-estate taxes for three decades"). Jay-sus.

Said the councilman, "I'm philosophically opposed to economic development incentive grants. In my mind they're not an effective way in the long run to recruit business. I think they're a good way to make a splashy show to bring in a business .... Everyone else in the community is going to have to take up the slack."

We'll be able to watch this batch of porridge cook over the long term.

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