The Editorial You'll Never See the Tampa Bay Times Print

The Tampa Bay Times' editorial board penned a piece this weekend criticizing one local county for incentivizing companies to relocate jobs from an adjacent county:

The incentive packages, though, funnel county and state tax dollars to companies already operating just down the road in Hillsborough and Pinellas. There is a better use of the public's money than paying employers to move around within Tampa Bay.

The editorial echoes many of the sentiments from a series of 2013 Times editorials criticizing various "corporate welfare" deals.

Now, don't confuse the paper's longstanding opposition to paying companies to relocate jobs 15 miles down the road...with its longstanding support for Hillsborough County incentivizing the Rays to relocate 15 miles down the road.

Which is why you'd never ever see the editorial board apply the same logic from this weekend's editorial to the Rays' campaign for stadium subsidy dollars:

It's not that counties shouldn't recruit new businesses or companies shouldn't determine their own destinies. But (the county) can tout an educated workforce and robust housing market to make the case for businesses to set up shop, not just incentive dollars. And better regional coordination in business recruitment would lessen the impact on taxpayers, who gain nothing by Tampa Bay being in competition with itself. From a regional standpoint, that's a zero-sum game.

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