Friday, September 21, 2007

Are business incentives a public opinion loser?

They are according to the recent Civitas Poll.

In a special session the State Legislature passed a bill giving $60 million in cash to five selected large companies employing more than 2000 people to invest in their facilities. Do you think the State should give big corporations cash payments taken from the taxes paid by small business and average taxpayers?

Yes 9%
No 80%

Do you think it is better State policy to lower taxes for all business or to give cash incentives to a few big businesses to help protect jobs in the state?

Help all business 76%
Help big business 9%

But a PPP survey conducted in April found somewhat conflicting results. According to that poll North Carolina voters did not support the $260 million deal for Google, but they did support the idea of business incentives to attract jobs.

So are business incentives a public opinion winner or loser? I think the debate is still open, but it is VERY easy to turn the public against them.

Update (09/24/07): Inside Politics in the Fayetteville Observer takes a shot at Civitas' question wording.

No comments:

Post a Comment