NC has made significant progress lowering our states unemployment rate and around 200,000 jobs have been created in the last few years in our state. But it was my preference that Governor McCrory should call the General Assembly back in session before the November elections because out state needs to extend the Job Development Incentive Grant (JDIG) program which helps us recruit companies to locate and expand in our state. Ive requested that the Governor call a special session to address economic development. The Governor did mention if there was a significant economic development project that requires legislative action then he may call us back into session. Economic development recruiters across NC are working with companies today that could bring as many as 10,000 jobs to our state. Realistically all of those companies wont locate here but our goal is to win as many of these companies as possible. Secretary of Commerce Sharon Decker may have other tools that can keep our state competitive until the JDIG program is extended included programs like the One NC Fund. I understand that Governor McCrory and Secretary Decker are working very hard to recruit as many of these companies as possible including some to Buncombe County. Its my job as a legislator to make sure they have the tools that keep us competitive and ahead of our competition like South Carolina and Texas. Nobody likes incentives and NC made significant progress to improve our competitiveness by lowering our state corporate and personal income tax rates. But we are still competing with states that have lower tax rates and many of them offer significantly more incentives than we do. We dont have to offer the most incentives, we just need to be in the ballpark and we will win more jobs than we lose.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 01:14:53 +0000