Yesterday, Governor Jack Markell had an editorial published in the OpEd section of the Washington Post. Titled Taxes are the wrong focus for economic growth, he makes the case that businesses want to be in places with a good quality of life — where talented people and their families want to live:
The number of business leaders who asked me to lower their taxes can be counted on one hand. Perhaps that’s because they recognize they get great value in Delaware already. But what I hear most from business leaders is that they want the government to continue to improve our schools, reduce the time it takes to issue permits and licenses, enhance our transportation infrastructure, protect our arts community, strengthen linkages between our institutions of higher education and local companies, and be responsive.
It is always a good reminder that taxes paid isn’t especially high on the list of business issues for job creation (with the possible exception of manufacturing, and that is about tariffs). Which isn’t to say that are plenty of businesses who have figured out how to get a revenue stream of taxpayer dollars that they actually depend upon for profitability. This, I think, is part of the “race to the bottom” that Governor Markell writes of. Because if you are throwing money at businesses, you certainly aren’t in much of a position to improve education or to improve the environment or even your transportation systems. And you won’t keep many of those businesses if these elements are missing.
He comes down firmly in favor of investing to compete:
President Obama has appropriately focused in recent months on the need to out-innovate other countries. But where will the innovation come from if we don’t make necessary investments in federally funded research? Who will take innovation to market if we don’t help millions of workers retool their skills with appropriate job training? How will we get these new goods to market cost-effectively if we don’t improve our infrastructure? These are precisely the investments other nations are making. We must, too.
You should read the whole thing — he does take the opportunity to contrast his approach with Scott Walker’s. Noting that while Walker is working on destruction (and one that may have some blowback to local businesses, one bank has already had issues), he is working at compromise with local unions on pension and medical costs. I do wonder though, that if businesspeople already see Delaware as a great value for their taxes, why it is that we are not taking better steps to more broadly share the pain of this downturn?