Incentive Watch Saturday, April 23, 2005 The Texas super fund may sound like a good idea, but there's a downside. Political control of that much money creates temptations for abuse, as well as deep skepticism among some in the press. Read more. Governor Perdue in Georgia has signed new legislation, the Strategic Industries Tax Credit. The legislation authorizes a $500 per job tax credit bonus for each new full-time position created by existing businesses that have been headquartered in the state for three or more years. Read more. Cincinnati's mayor is promoting his new approach to economic incentives in the city. Read more. EDPros in Minnesota have used a money-for-jobs approach to keep jobs with Northwest Airlines. Read more. Michigan's Economic Development Corporation has provided tax credits worth $17.4 million to Johnson Controls to keep 1,745 jobs in the state. Local governments are throwing in another $10.2 million in tax abatements. Read more. Here's a good article from Rocky Mount, NC on the dynamics of incentives. Read more. Express Scripts, a Fortune 500 company, has been offered millions of dollars to move to Illinois. Should Missouri respond? Read more. EDPros in Illinois have put together a proposal for a warehouse facility, probably for Sysco. Read the details. Louisiana governor Blanco is proposing new incentives to help her state. Read more. An editorial in St. Petersburg makes an interesting point. Governor Bush has no problem holding schools accountable. But the same scrutiny does not apply to the state's investments in economic development. It's not chump change. An investigation by the newspaper estimates that Florida could be investing as much as $900 million this year. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison |		This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. links Some Background on EDPro Weblog The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it. One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information. So, spread the word...Share the knowledge. Tell a friend about EDPro Weblog. If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site: Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber: Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking. Background on Ed Morrison Download some background information on me here.

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