Governor Douglas’s team is in the BFP today bemoaning the lack of business tax incentives in the budget .The poster child used is BioTek a Vermont based international company with offices in Singapore, China, India, Germany and the UK.
As he considers expanding, though, Chief Executive Officer Briar Alpert is wondering if he can justify doing it here.BioTek, a manufacturer of high-tech science tools that employs 230 people in Winooski, is working on the acquisition of a California company. That state’s research and development tax credits could lure BioTek to locate any expansion there instead of in Vermont, Alpert said.” The rational decision would be to do the expansion out in California,” Alpert said. That decision might be different if Vermont had the same offer, he said, but Vermont is one of only nine states without research and development tax credits.
However no mention is made in the article of how in January 06, 2009 approval of up to $692,854 for job creation incentives was given by the Vermont Economic Progress Council to BioTek Instruments. Inc. in order to support jobs in the knowledge based economy.
Also left missing was mention of the nomination of BioTek for the Dean C. Davis Outstanding Business of the Year on May 11 ,2009 .The annual award named for the former Governor of Vermont, honors a Vermont business that shows an outstanding history of sustained growth while displaying an acute awareness of what makes Vermont unique. It was noted less than three weeks ago that, the company already has plans to expand the Winooski headquarters by 7000 square feet to include a state-of-the-art laboratory. This expansion will secure BioTek’s brand in the industry and reputation for producing cutting-edge, innovative instrumentation and techniques.
http://burlingtonfreepress.com…
http://www.vermont.gov/portal/…
http://www.vermontbiz.com/news…
some fascinating academic research on the subject of business comments regarding such incentives
upon receipt of the awards, business owners stand with the governor / mayor and express gratitude for the assistance provided; “it was critical to our decision to stay / expand”
but when asked privately and off the record, many say “it’s nice that they offered but it was not a deciding factor”
so why did you say what you did at the ribbon cutting? “hey, we don’t want to be disrespectful or ungrateful and, furthermore, why piss him / her off when we might need something else later on”
so the ribbon cutting comments are referred to as “strategic answering” and they pass for newsworthy quotes every time
“Tax [incentives are] like the explorer who knows of an eclipse of the sun. Encountering a group of natives, he performs an elaborate ceremony to darken the sun, and the stunned natives worship him as a man of supernatural power ever after. Similarly, nothing is more tempting for a politician than to take a bow for causing some massive private project. With tax [incentives], politicians can point to towering skyscrapers downtown and say ‘without my help these never would have come about.’ The population is stunned and grateful.”
Rubin, I.S. and H.J. Rubin, “Economic Development Incentives: The Poor (Cities) Pay More,” Urban Affairs Quarterly 23 (1987), 37-62.