Conservative State Senate candidate Joe Carr is calling for a legislative investigation into the spending and grant process at the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD). "Over the past several years, it has become increasingly clear that ECD is being used as a "piggy bank" for sweetheart deals for the politically connected," Carr said. "It is time to have a thorough audit by the Comptroller and a detailed investigation by the legislature to determine exactly how our tax dollars have been spent and the results that are being generated."
The Beacon Center Pork Report highlights a combination of government mismanagement, incompetence, and outright fraud. Tennesseans were able to choose the infamous "Pork of the Year" award from a list of nominated examples. After all votes were cast, the "winner" of the award was the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development for their Industrial Machinery Tax Credit. The department took 34% of the vote in the public poll.
In one of the most inefficient instances of corporate welfare in recent years, Tennessee taxpayers paid $67 million annually for a mere 55 jobs per year from 2011-2014, which adds up to $1.2 million per job. The full 2017 "Pork Report" is HERE. The Report contains several other examples of wasteful spending by ECD, including other "incentive" programs ranging from supposed job creation to film projects.
The best place to start the cleanup of ECD is by assessing exactly what they have been doing with our tax dollars, and what those investments have actually produced in terms of jobs and private investment in the state, Carr said. "What is our return on investment," he asked, "in clear terms that we can objectively measure. One of my first efforts as State Senator will be to try to get a handle on what exactly they are doing, and why they are doing it. Then we can decide whether taxpayers are getting the biggest bang for our bucks."
Carr is also calling for a complete audit and accounting for the returns generated in the TNInvestco program that has been the focus of recent investigations by the Tennessean and others media outlets. http://www.tennessean.com/
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Joe Carr for State Senate campaign