State and local government have made a deal to give Google $260 million to put 210 jobs (with average salaries of $48,000) in Caldwell County. Do the math: $260,000,000 in ‘incentives’ is greater than the total salaries Google will pay over the next 24 years.

Supporters of these deals say that government subsidizing corporations is the cost of new jobs. Opponents call it corporate welfare. Either way there’s a troubling twist. Government says to most North Carolinians, Here’s what it cost you (in taxes) to live here – to pay for the roads, schools, police and health care we need. But, then, it turns around and tells Google, You can live here for $260,000,000 less – and still use the roads and schools.

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