Apple Inc. appears to be delaying its plans to build a corporate campus in Research Triangle Park, which is sited on the boundaries of Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham in North Carolina.

Construction was originally slated to begin in 2026, but the tech giant has reportedly told state officials of its desire to delay groundbreaking for up to four years. The delay would be a considerable setback for the area, which anticipated substantial economic growth and job creation from the project.

The first phase of the project was expected to include six buildings across 41 acres, with a promise of a future expansion on a 281 acre site. The proposed project was intended to house roles in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and software engineering, with estimates of 3,000 jobs with salaries approaching $200,000.

As the region grapples with news of the delay, the broader implications in terms of economic development are somewhat less clear. The taxpayer-funded incentives bound up in the project may have made the development less of an unalloyed positive for North Carolinians.

Massive Taxpayer Contributions

The cost to North Carolina for securing Apple’s investment was substantial, with $845.8 million in tax breaks promised over 39 years and local incentives adding another $20 million. The all-in cost to taxpayers totaled nearly $1 billion, or roughly $333,000 per job added.

For context, this is just a few thousand dollars shy of a noted tax incentive boondoggle: the “border war” between Kansas City between Missouri and Kansas. There, some 414 jobs were created in Kansas at a cost of $340,000 per job.

The track record of the Job Development Investment Grant Program, which would facilitate the tax breaks accruing to Apple, has been mixed at best. Notable projects that have also been pushed back by the recipients of tax incentives include an agreement with Allstate to create 2,200 jobs which was made impractical by a shift to remote work and a commitment by a Vietnamese automaker to create 7,500 jobs which has been delayed until 2025.

Apple’s decision to delay the construction of its Research Triangle Park campus brings into question the future economic impact on the Raleigh-Durham area—but it is far from clear the result will be a net negative for North Carolina taxpayers.

Tax Incentives and Job Creation

The efficacy of tax incentives in fostering job creation more broadly has been long debated. While incentives are often touted as necessary to attract large companies and thereby spur economic development, evidence has for some time suggested that they may not be as effective as advertised.

One main criticism is that the incentives often result in a relocating of existing jobs rather than the creation of new ones—put differently, there is no net addition of jobs to the economy writ large, merely a subtraction from one region or state and an addition in another. This can have beneficial local effects, but those effects may be blunted by the broader net loss inherent where an expenditure is made to maintain the same total number of jobs.

The practice of offering tax incentives leads to a zero-sum game, where cities or regions engage in a destructive bidding war, each vying to spend more taxpayer money to the benefit of no one save for the corporations being fought over.

In fact, research suggests that the primary drivers of job growth are not older firms—but young firms. This would suggest North Carolina would be better off incentivizing the next Apple to start its business in the Research Triangle, rather than trying to attract existing behemoths. Newer firms inject competition, spur innovation, and are more likely to hire new workers.

Thus, policies that support the creation of new businesses, rather than providing tax incentives to existing ones, may be more beneficial for long-term sustainable development—but they don’t make the headlines.

With 29% of North Carolina child care programs saying they would close with many in the west of the state eyeing deep cuts, legislators have advanced emergency funding before a June 30 fiscal cliff.

The N.C. State House voted late June 26 to allocate about $67 million for the first half of the July 1 fiscal year in a bill that must still be approved by the Senate. The move came as a 2021 program using hundreds of millions of dollars in federal pandemic aid to boost child care was set to end. The federally funded stabilization grants that were administered by the state helped provide more than 10,000 child care slots in Buncombe, Henderson and Madison counties, state data said.

The loss of the stabilization grants would mean the closure of 29% of child care programs statewide, according to a February N.C. Child Care Resource and Referral Council survey. A report on the survey, conducted by Well World Solutions, did not make clear how many Western North Carolina programs said they would close. The Citizen Times reached out to June 26 to Well World.

Marcia Whitney, president and CEO of Verner Center, which serves 232 children as young as infants at programs in Swannanoa and Emma Elementary, said they did not want to cut salaries or raise tuition. But would have to look at eliminating positions.

“Where do we have potential? Streamlining positions and obviously cutting expenses every other place we can,” Whitney told the Citizen Times four days before the funding cliff.

Those that don’t receive free or subsidized care at Verner pay a monthly tuition of $1,656 for children up to 3 years old and $1,206 for those 3 to 5 years old.

Advocates have been asking the General Assembly in Raleigh to maintain the funding. But the Republican-controlled Senate and House were at a budget impasse.

Greg Borom, director of the WNC Early Childhood Coalition, said he had hoped legislators would step away from other budget issues and pass some kind of separate funding.

“We really can’t go through the summer without our fragile child care landscape being stabilized,” Borom told the Citizen Times June 26.

The grants were created in 2021, when Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper announced that $805 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act would be used to boost pay for child care workers, many of whom were quitting during the pandemic.

How grants affected local child care

The stabilization grants have supported more than 10,000 child care slots in Buncombe, Henderson and Madison counties, according to the N.C. Division of Child Development and Early Education.

• Buncombe: 7,587 child care slots (1,022 staff positions supported)
• Henderson: 4,079 child care slots (398 staff positions supported)
• Madison: 231 child care slots (29 staff positions supported)

A 2023 N.C. Chamber Foundation survey found that 60% of parents with children who are ages 5 and younger said they had to miss work because of a problem with child care and 32% didn’t pursue job training or continued education because of a lack of affordable child care.

Despite the stabilization grants, some child care programs that have historically faced difficulties providing services in poorer areas, continued to struggle. In October of 2023 the nonprofit Southwestern Child Development closed seven programs in Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood and Jackson counties. The nearly 300 children affected were were up to 5 years in age with most receiving free or subsidized care due to income.

As the grant money was set to run out in December 2023, advocates asked the legislature for $300 million. But the General Assembly came back with $100 million that extended the grants through June.

In his recommended budget for the fiscal year starting July 1, Cooper has said the state should add another $200 million. The House has proposed $135 million and the Senate $136.5 million in their opposing and deadlocked budget bills.

Isabel Taylor, director of Bells School in Fletcher, said because of her program’s small classes they charge a bit more than other centers. If the funding didn’t come they would likely have to raise rates, she said.

Taylor said her main concern was for centers that serve children coming from low-income households.

“If the state supports child care then they should support the centers that are serving the most needy children,” Taylor said. “The centers that serve 50% public assistance are the most deserving of help from the state.”

More: NC Health Dept: 7 Western North Carolina child care centers to close, lack of funding

More: Asheville school board chair backs historic change: pay, staffing, power for teachers

Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years, covering politics, government and other news. He’s written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police use of force. Got a tip? Contact Burgess at jburgess@citizentimes.com, 828-713-1095 or on Twitter @AVLreporter. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

The North Carolina Senate on Monday passed a bipartisan medical cannabis bill that includes changes aimed at getting the measure through the House, which has for years killed similar measures, WTVD reports. The measure passed Monday includes provisions that would not allow adult-use cannabis legalization unless approved by the legislature, even if the federal government were to legalize cannabis broadly.   

The bill was initially passed last week, tacked on to a hemp regulation bill which includes enhanced regulations on the state’s existing hemp and CBD products.  

In an interview with WTVD, Dr. David Casarett, a palliative care fellow at Duke University, noted that under the current state ban on medical cannabis, he unable to talk about cannabis with his patients.   

“I need to work within the bounds of what’s legal. I also need to help my patients and I also need to be open and willing to talk about it because, you know, if a patient comes to me and asks me about medical cannabis and I say it’s illegal, I can’t talk about it, I’m basically shut off.” — Casarett via WTVD 

House Speaker Tim Moore (R) as said that he supports legalizing medical cannabis but that the proposal is unlikely to be considered in the House because not enough House Republicans support the issue. The new language seeks to get the approval from the chamber’s more conservative members.  

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