Google Data Center Scandal?

Peter found an alarming post on Nicholas Carr’s Rough Type blog which displays a list of several North Carolina newspapers that are blasting the recent Google Data Center project in Lenior NC.

Among the newspapers he cites in his post are:

• Caldwell County News-Topic
• Charlotte Observer
• Wilmington Morning Star
• Greensboro News-Record
• Raleigh News Observer

It appears that Google was secretly granted as much as a quarter billion dollars in tax breaks, which was more than first reported 8O. That amounts to more than $1 million dollars for each of the 210 jobs created, paid to Google courtesy of NC taxpayers. Evidently, the secrecy and the huge amount does not sit too well with Tarheels.

Nicholas’ great article concludes with this bit of disturbing news:

Under pressure from Google to finalize the deal quickly, local politicians never even bothered to complete an analysis of the economic impact of the tax incentives, reports the Associated Press.

Check out Nicholas’ entire post and, if you are a NC Taxpayer, you might get fired up too.