Outside perspective.

• Author: Mooneyham, Scott
• Position: CAPITALGOODS - Business-recruitment incentives

Few subjects are more prone to make politicians appear hypocritical than business-recruitment incentives. The reasons are obvious: Giving taxpayer money to companies with multimillion-dollar bottom lines is distasteful, and incentives can incite voters against incumbents come election time. Candidates not in power usually are more skeptical of them. Once elected and competing with other states to bring home the recruiting bacon, their tune often changes.

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Running for governor, Pat McCrory did quite the dance to avoid being pinned down on the issue. As the favorite, he played most issues as safe as possible. But you can only be so careful under the scrutiny that conies with running for statewide office. At one point, a spokesman told a reporter, "Pat opposes upfront cash incentives with no guarantee of the jobs coming or staying in North Carolina. Pat believes it is more appropriate to focus on existing North Carolina businesses to help them grow and create jobs." Later, McCrory acknowledged he would continue to offer the inducements, qualifying the statement with talk of a "return-on-in vestment formula."

Six months into his term, reality has replaced rhetoric. Barely a week goes by without McCrory crowing about some relocation or plant expansion in the state. The announcements almost always include a reference to state incentives. With Republicans firmly in control of the legislature and the governor's mansion, no scaling back of incentives appears imminent, despite discussions to the contrary. The state Senate's proposed budget more than doubles the money for one of North Carolina's key incentives, the Jobs Development Investment Program, bringing the total to $51 million.

Secretary of Commerce Sharon Decker recently told lawmakers the state needs incentives to stay in the race. "I do think that in today's competitive environment that we are taken off the list if we don't have those tools in our quiver," she said. Democratic governors and legislative leaders mixed the same metaphors lamenting a fate that forced them to rain tax breaks and money on companies to keep South Carolina or Georgia from wooing them away. However, that doesn't mean the McCrory administration won't change how it recruits industry and promotes the state.

McCrory and Decker plan to create a private, nonprofit corporation to take over several functions of the N.C...