Incentive to Maintain

Despite losing over 10,000 manufacturing jobs since 2006, South Carolina is offering one of its largest employers incentives that do not require job growth. Last week the A.P. reported on Michelin North America, a tire manufacturer, was offered tax incentives for investing $500 million into South Carolina, however the incentives do not require the company to add to or even to maintain its employees within the state.

Gov. Mark Sanford said the deal would even let Michelin cut as many as 3,000 jobs and still be eligible for the new credits lawmakers approved over his veto. "I think it creates a very bad precedent going forward," Stanford said. "You would for the first time lose the nexus between job creation and incentives in our state.

The A.P. reported that some states are finding out that industries once promising to create hundreds of jobs in exchange for tax incentives are now asking for those financial incentives just to maintain employment levels.

Sources: Associated Press (via Mlive.com), The State