Easley wants more for cash grants, less for advertising
Gov. Mike Easley wants to pour millions more into cash-for-jobs programs while cutting traditional economic-development linchpins such as marketing for tourists and boosting the film industry.
Little noticed in a budget debate so far dominated by education and taxation is an Easley proposal to appropriate an additional $15 million a year for the next two years to the One North Carolina Fund. The program pays cash to companies hiring workers in the state.
Since 2001, $42 million has been granted to companies that say they've invested $3.8 billion and hired more than 27,000 workers through the program, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce.
The One North Carolina Fund request is the capstone of the governor's economic-development proposal for the next two fiscal years -- a proposal he says "solidifies North Carolina as a national leader in recruiting new business and growing existing businesses."
State Sen. Neal Hunt, a Wake County Republican, says the One North Carolina Fund should be subjected to periodic "third-party" scrutiny to make sure it is delivering a payoff.
Easley would spend in other ways to attract companies, including:
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A 15 percent budget increase, to $3.6 million, to operate three helicopters that commerce officials use to transport agency reps and corporate clients around the state. The choppers made 270 flights in fiscal 2005-06.
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A $100,000 appropriation to promote the motorsports industry.
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About $5.3 million a year for business and industry development and $2.7 million for international-business development. Those items are flat compared with the state's previous two-year budget.
Feeling the pain would be the following:
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The N.C. Department of Commerce's Research and Policy Division, which would see its budget cut by 28 percent to $1.15 million during each of the next two fiscal years.
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Marketing and customer service, which would drop to $1.9 million for fiscal 2008 from $3.3 million authorized for 2006-07. In 2006-07, about 40 percent of the money was used for advertising.
Easley proposes spending $104,000 during each of the next two fiscal years to hire a Web site content provider to supplement the state's marketing efforts.
The Film and Tourism Division of the Commerce Department would take a 6 percent cut -- from $12.2 million to $11.4 million. Nearly 80 percent of the division's money has been used to promote the state though advertising campaigns.