New Jersey Pays Company $100 Million to Move From One NJ City to Another
Panasonic's North American headquarters are currently located in Secaucus, New Jersey. Today, the company plans to sign a lease to move its headquarters ten miles down the road to Newark, New Jersey. Why? Because the state of New Jersey paid them more than $100 million (in the form of tax breaks) to do so.
The basic facts, again: The State of New Jersey, in the midst of a budget crisis, gives a corporation $100 million in tax breaks to move its headquarters from one New Jersey city to another New Jersey city. We must be missing something, right? It was either this or Panasonic would leave the state entirely right? Well, here's the analysis from the company's current landlord:
"The first thing a tenant says when they come in and negotiate is, 'We're going to leave your building, and we're going to leave your state,'" Mr. Magrini said. "That's, 'Hello.' And the state bought it for $102 million."
Also today, the New Jersey Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a case about how the latest state budget cuts school spending "to an amount $1.6 billion less than called for in a 2008 school-funding law."
Hey, Panasonic probably would have paid $100 million to get the hell out of Secaucus! Amirite? But seriously, someone should be jailed, right next to a whole lot of illiterate New Jersey high school grads.
