Honda has its hand out again for more money.

• Position: Triad - Honda Aircraft Co

It's not as if Guilford County doesn't love Honda Aircraft Co. "They've hired all the folks they said they would and paid them higher wages than anticipated," County Commissioner Billy Yow says. But Honda's attempt to extract $9.4 million from the state and local government for a possible expansion of its Piedmont Triad International Airport operations is stoking a fresh debate over incentives: Should taxpayers continue to subsidize a global manufacturing superstar while local companies go begging?

"It's just plain wrong," Yow says, "There are a lot of businesses in town that have been here a long time and are struggling. If you're going to do this for Honda, you ought to do it for them too." Greensboro-based Timco Aviation Services Inc. employs more than 2,200 at the airport and does maintenance, which could compete with the service center that Honda wants to build. But the majority of Guilford's county commissioners want to give Honda the money. Greensboro already has approved a $520,000 incentives package.

In 2007, state and local government granted the Tokyo-based giant $8 million to build its $100 million headquarters at Piedmont Triad International. It also has a $27 million jet-engine plant in Burlington, which employs...