Archive for October, 2007

Google, looking to build a new computer center, has their sights set on Lenoir, North Carolina, a small town located 70 miles northwest of Charlotte. This may have come to fruition because Caldwell County officials gave away the proverbial farm when they offered the Internet giant the most lucrative and richest tax-break deals in North Carolina’s history! Here’s the funny part, Google didn’t even ask for a better deal, North Carolina just offered it up! So what is the deal you ask? Chew on this…city and county officials agreed to waive 100 percent of personal property taxes and 80 percent of its real estate taxes for 30 years! And if that weren’t enough, the state legislature even exempt Google from sales tax on its electricity bill to boot! What will the town of Lenoir get out of it you ask? Google will bring aproximately 210 high-paying jobs over a four year period to an otherwise economically depressed area that has been hurting from the collapse of its furniture industry. I ask you, do you think it was worth it?

JoAnn