State Site Selection Rankings: Buy Your Way to the Top

That is pretty much the message in an editorial piece appearing originally in the Providence, R.I. Journal. The article says that the way to get to the top of Site Selection Magazine's State Rankings List is to "buy your way to the top" by giving away more incentives than other states. Moreover, the article says that there is no research proof that incentives really work.

This is an age-old debate, and one that I have been in and out of for many years. I agree that there is no scientific proof that incentives actually work in a cause-effect sense. But they do work in the dog-it-dog world of business, where firms will extract a pound of flesh in any way they can from their suppliers, their customers, government, and the communities where they do business. That is real, and that means that incentives do make a difference in whether one place or another gets the business investment deal.

Read the article and see what you think. My guess is that you will fall into one of two categories in terms of your reaction: 1) like a lot of other economic developers you will resent the article because it puts you between a rock and a hard place with the businesses who are your customers and they want the freebies; or 2) like a lot of other economic developers you will quietly say a prayer that all places on Earth decide to in unison lay down their incentives in an international disarmament that does away with these nasty two-edged swords.