Will Apple bite back?

The NC Senate, Inc., has scrambled in recent days to create incentives designed to lure Apple Computers to North Carolina. Dome has the story.

Under the bill, only a company's North Carolina sales would be used to calculate its corporate income tax. North Carolina now includes a company's property and payroll when calculating the tax.

But as Elaine Mejia points out at Progressive Pulse, the bill runs the risk of being short-sighted and counterproductive.

So the new tax break designed to grow the economy could actually create an incentive for companies with a presence in NC to grow jobs in other states rather than here at home! Moreover, companies considered “capital intensive” would also have a disincentive to make a larger share of their sales in-state because that too could cost them their special status and they would lose their tax breaks. This is a clear example of why making permanent changes to the tax code to appease one or a handful of specific corporations is not the best economic development strategy in the long-term.

It's no wonder businesses invest so much in cultivating North Carolina state senators. The honorables (1) seem eager to please big bidness, (2) seem completely incapable of thinking past the next election cycle, and (3) have about as much practical sense as god gave an animal cracker.

But not to worry. Some poor suckers five or ten years from now will be mopping up the mess, and the senators will have long since moved on.