Editorial: Use tax preferences intelligently
Counting every dollar in tax incentives
Virginia can learn from North Carolina and other states that have more effective policies to ensure taxpayer-funded credits are getting results.
Virginia leaders who read last week’s report from the Pew Center on the States about tax incentives have a choice. They can feel satisfied that many states do a poorer job than the commonwealth in evaluating tax breaks for manufacturing, film production, coal and other businesses. Or they can look for ideas to make Virginia’s policies better.
They don’t have to look far. North Carolina was among 13 states that won a gold star for strong, data-driven evaluation of their tax incentives. Virginia is one of 12 states whose vetting process yielded mixed results, according to the study.
April 16, 2012 - 6:23 AM
VA’s tax credits are designed to pick and choose the favored industries. However, citing coal as an example of a bad choice. Coal has lost employment because natural gas is taking over the utilities. Coal is no longer able to compete with the low prices of natural gas. Sime of that has to do with the new regulations on coal and the reduction of regulations on fracking for natural gas at the federal level. Picking and choosing favorites by government is a time honored tradition.