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Wednesday: Pen and Inc
posted at 2007-10-11 00:00 | Last modified 2007-11-14 10:38
Governor Mike Easley joined INC Research CEO Jim Ogle today to announce that the Raleigh-based drug testing firm is adding almost 1100 jobs over the next four years, most of them here in the Triangle. Average pay is $62K. (I am SO in the wrong business.)
And the pricetag for the expansion was a steal – an incentive package worth just 15 million in tax credits over 9 years, or about $13,600 per job. That’s a fire-sale price compared to the Google deal, which worked out to almost a million bucks per job, or even the Dell deal, which was 300 million in state and local breaks for 1500 jobs, or about $200K apiece.
Easley apparently thought it was a pretty good deal, too. He joked, “I’ll be looking for something to do in about 15 months. Save me a spot. Pay’s about the same.”
“Sounds good,” Ogle chuckled.
Nice catch
Over at Dome, Ryan Teague Beckwith points out that once again, Don Beason shows up in proximity to large amounts of cash…this time as the lobbyist for the Albemarle Mental Health Center. An audit out yesterday questioned Center Director Charles Franklin Jr.’s $283,000 salary. (That's about 170K above average.) Even Franklin’s assistant was making $143,000, and that's without a college degree. Who says social service jobs don’t pay?
Reiff riffs
Moore campaign manager Jay Reiff took issue (very politely) with my post last night. And he made a couple of good points -- like this response to my complaint about the absence of substantive issues:
"I don't recall Richard Moore's school construction plan getting as much attention as Cliff Benson [sic]."
Okay, mea culpa. Of course, the “Cliff Bennett” story was a lot sexier than Moore’s school plan…but, seriously, point taken.
"It was your colleagues in the 4th Estate that first pointed out the coal miner's daughter issue, not me."
True. I think it was the Independent’s Bob Geary that first started talking about it, back in 2000. But it isn’t the Fourth Estate that’s bringing it up again seven years later.
(Reiff also told me something I didn’t know about the “coal miner” commercial that sparked the flap – it was made by Kevin Geddings, the PR guy and former lottery commissioner who’s now serving a four-year federal sentence on corruption charges. Small world.)
"If [the resume issue] was such a minor deal, why didn't the Perdue camp simply come clean right off the bat?"
Now, that’s a REALLY good question. Anyone?
So anyway, I was starting to wonder if I should apologize for being cranky about the whole Moore/Perdue ankle-biting debacle when a sympathetic friend sent me Jack Betts’ Sunday Char-O column, and his blog entry today. Nope. I feel much better now.
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