Ex-judge wants state to break with incentives.

• Author: Martin, Edward
• Position: PEOPLE - Bob Orr - Biography

Bob Orr laughed recently when he found a cat collar with a bell in his office. It was a gag gift from a group he had addressed. In his speech, he recited the fable about a colony of mice that cheered when one suggested they bell their nemesis to keep the feline from sneaking up on them. But when the call went out for a volunteer, they scurried back in their holes.

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Orr's cat is economic incentives, baiting businesses with cash, tax breaks and other inducements. North Carolina recently agreed to give nearly $243 million to Round Rock, Texas-based Dell to get it to build a $100 million computer-assembly plant in the Triad. Winston-Salem and Forsyth County chipped in an additional $37.2 million.

Corporations are able to play states and localities against one another to receive extraordinarily large sums of money, says Orr, executive director of the Raleigh-based North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law. "Where does it stop?"

He hopes the answer will start with the institute he heads. Started in 2003 by a group that includes Art Pope, a former Republican state representative and president of Raleigh-based discount-store chain Variety Wholesalers, its agenda includes campaign-finance reform and other issues.

Orr, 58, has the easy affability of a career politician, which isn't surprising since he's a veteran of four statewide races. A lawyer--UNC Chapel Hill law school, class of 1975--he seemed positioned to end his career as a justice on the N.C. Supreme Court, where he had served since 1995. Before that, he spent 8 1/2 years on the state Court of Appeals.

Then, a year ago, he retired barely a year into his second term. The decision wasn't as sudden as it seemed. He had watched as judicial races became more rancorous. He had lost heart in the judiciary, but he had...