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State, Local Tax Breaks To Lure Google To Lenoir Adding Up

Dimension, found this local news...thought you might want it, locals are pissed but it's good deal 4 google.
http://www.wsoctv.com/news/10762791/detail.html?rss=char&psp=news

POSTED: 2:44 pm EST January 16, 2007
UPDATED: 2:46 pm EST January 16, 2007

LENOIR, N.C. -- Proposed tax breaks to lure a Google Inc. computer hub to the foothills of North Carolina are mounting as the search engine company considers where to locate a $600 million operation.

State and local tax breaks, if Google brings the 210 employee operation to Caldwell County, could total more than $100 million for the next three decades. About $96 million of the total would be from state tax incentives.

The Caldwell County Economic Development Commission and Duke Energy, which would sell power for the massive computer "farm," bought 150 acres to build a business park for Google, if it comes. The land was rezoned by the city of Lenoir to allow such a facility.

The Mountain View, Calif., company's proposed investment is roughly half the tax base of the city. City and county governments have agreed to forgo property and real estate taxes for 30 years if it moves to Caldwell County.

"People are expectant but hesitant," said Dinell Clark, whose family runs a home furniture store in Lenoir. "What do we get for that 30 year generosity?"

Caldwell County has traditionally been a furniture manufacturing hub, but the industry has been in decline for the past several years. The roughly 3,400 unemployed people in the county would need specialized training to compete for a job with Google.

"How can it possibly be worth it?" asked Jim Henson, who dismantles old furniture factories.

Economic developers say Google would lure other employers to the area.

George Bernhardt Jr., who is the sixth generation of his family to run Bernhardt Seagle Hardware Store, said Google may not solve all the area's problems. But he said the company could help change the area's economic focus.

Cynthia Hicks, who owns a gift shop, said Google could bring a more educated and better-paid work force.

"The economic impact that this is going to have, I can't even fathom it," she said. "It is absolutely one of the best things that could happen."

Spending at this level to attract industry to North Carolina isn't unprecedented. In 2004, state and local governments offered $280 million worth of incentives to get Dell to build a computer plant in Winston-Salem.

Critics of the spending sued unsuccessfully.

"It's mind-boggling that these kind of giveaways are taking place," said Bob Orr, a former state Supreme Court justice who led the lawsuit against Dell incentives. "There are a number of struggling businesses or people who would like to open a business who don't get this kind of break."