Moore: Feroce Destroys Raimondo’s Economic Strategy
Monday, February 13, 2017
What if I told you that Governor Gina Raimondo’s economic development strategy isn’t an economic development strategy at all.
Has anyone, besides me, ever wondered if maybe it’s just a public relations strategy? The time has come to ask the question. We could even be a little bit more critical of this whole 38 Studio’s Light strategy.
Maybe the Governor’s plan to throw millions of dollars at high profile, big name companies isn’t being done in the name of economic development, but is being done to place bright feathers in her cap. General Electric opening an office here in Rhode Island makes for a good press release, even if it does very little to increase the size of our state’s labor force.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIt’s just corporate welfare. The fact that ‘oh everyone else is doing it’, doesn’t make it any less so.
PR, Not an Economic Development
Yet when the Governor sets out onto the campaign trail next year, the folks she talks to will be hearing about the big names she “lured” here with their money. She can shake hands at the Bristol Fourth of July Parade and remind the folks there about all the economic progress we’re making. When she steps up to the podium for the gubernatorial debates, she’ll be talking about General Electric, Johnson & Johnson and Wexford Technologies. The legacy media here will continue to be enthralled by the big names “coming here” and all the promises that coincide.
Look, it might work, in a P. T. Barnum kind of way. That’s a good thing for her because she’ll still by the Governor and enjoy the prestige and the power that goes along with it. Is that all it’s about?
Even if it is, it doesn’t mean that some of us don’t know better or just what she’s up to. And it’s frustrating to watch it all unfold before our eyes. Sometimes, it feels like staring out into the void. All you can do is chuckle.
Count Giovanni Feroce, the man who helped made Alex and Ani a superstar in the jewelry industry, as one of us who knows better.
Rational Criticism
Feroce lambasted Governor Gina Raimondo’s economic strategy of handing out healthy economic subsidies to big name companies during an interview with GoLocal Live last week.
“It’s nonsense,” Feroce said.
“I’m definitely not for incentives. It’s (about) us reducing the cost of doing business.”
I challenge anyone to refute this logic.
Feroce, whose name has been bandied about as a possible GOP candidate for Governor, talked about the need to increase Rhode Island’s manufacturing base here in Rhode Island.
Feroce pointed out that New York City, one of the biggest economic hubs in the universe, has extremely high cost structures.
“Whatever you’re paying for in this space right now, wouldn’t even be what you’d pay for the basement in somewhere in Manhattan,” said Feroce, referring to GoLocal’s offices.
RI Advantages?
Feroce makes a great point that we don’t need big names. We need companies with hundreds upon hundreds of jobs that pay well. They don’t have to sound glitzy and glamorous in a press release. They just need to send Rhode Islanders paychecks for doing honest, productive work.
He used Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan’s company, which produces auto parts, here in America as an example.
“Do you know the name of Shaid Khan’s company? No. And I don’t either. But those are the kinds of jobs we want. Those are the thousands of jobs we want. We don’t want 20 jobs. We don’t want 75 jobs. We want thousands of job,” Feroce said.
“...We need those kinds of jobs. We need the bumpers. We need guys who make chairs.”
For those who are curious, Khan’s automobile parts company is called Flex-N-Gate.
If we’re going to land the next Flex-N-Gate, Rhode Island needs to decrease its tax and cost structure. That means we’d have to start cutting spending. It wouldn’t be easy. Special interest groups who have gotten comfortable by living off the fat of the land that is the Rhode Island government would wage large, widescale protests.
But in the end, it would be more fair than giving certain companies economic advantages over others thanks to lucrative subsidies.
Unfair and Unjust
How is it fair to someone like Feroce, who has poured millions of his own money into his own venture, Benrus, to have to stand aside and watch companies like General Electric and Johnson & Johnston receive generous subsidies from Rhode Island just so we can have the privilege of saying that they have a toehold here? It’s not.
In the case of Wexford Technologies, GoLocal obtained data from the state and fact checked the data. The state is spending roughly $32 million on the Wexford Science & Technology project at the land opened up by replacement of route 195. GoLocal found that the project, at this point, is slated to create 80-90 jobs as a result of this subsidy.
Wow! Let’s use a round number and say that the project is going to create 100 new jobs. That would mean it would cost us $320,000 per job.
If that isn’t “nonsense”, nothing is. We need sound policy, not pompoms.
Russell Moore has worked on both sides of the desk in Rhode Island media, both for newspapers and on political campaigns. Send him email at [email protected]. Follow him on twitter @russmoore713.
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