Tech titans draw fire on U.S. expansions

From USA Today:

Google, Dell and Advanced Micro Devices are discovering that building new facilities in the USA can generate almost as much controversy as sending jobs overseas.

Google hopes to open a computer data center in Lenoir, N.C., in about a year. It will employ 75 to 125 people and could expand later.

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley said the deal would reinvigorate the area. But former state judge Robert Orr questions the perks state and local officials used to woo Google. The company is getting grants and tax cuts that could be worth $100 million over 30 years. Such perks are common economic development tools. But they force smaller businesses to bear the brunt of state tax bills, and they take money from tight local budgets, Orr says.

“The market capitalization for Google is $150 billion,” he says. “Why does a small rural county have to subsidize them?”

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