of Tax Incentives

There is this quote, wrongly credited to the bible, "Heaven helps those that help themselves ".

My version is this, "Wealth comes to those that help themselves ".

When an investor comes to a State what is the response of the State? Is it joy that jobs have come That the investor will create jobs, boost commerce, which will generate taxes which will fund public services? Or do the states simply view the investor as an ATM?

Currently the response has been the later, states simply view investors as ATMs, they view investors as their opportunity to "tax", and "tax" they do…multiple times.

In March 2010, the town of Topeka in Kansas USA changed her name temporarily to Google.

Why?

Google want to build super-fast Internet connections in selected US cities under its program called "Fiber for Communities"... (we are talking 1 gigabit per second speed). Many US cities are bidding to attract Google to their town....to invest...create jobs. The name change was Topeka’s marketing gamble to Google.

You see Mayor of Topeka knows no FAAC will come from Washington based on landmass and “minimum responsibility of states”, so he has become creative, he wants Google to come and create jobs, he is actively courting them.

The people of Topeka also know Google will not select cities in the spirit of Federal Character...Google will select only the best proposal, so the competition is harder thus their response has to be better.

The City of Portland in Oregon USA has the second lowest taxes on data centers in America, just 2% as compared to say Chicago at 25%.

That tax incentives Portland has given attracted large data centers to rural parts of the state, Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook all have massive installations there.

That is how it's done, States "help" themselves not by charging multiple taxes but by targeted economic incentives to investors. Investors come in, employ, boost commerce.

As the Nigerian states need to fund their budgets, the response should not be a slew of new taxes but the creation of policies to attract the private sector to their states.

States can actually build a park or flat, power it, offer support services, offer it at very subsidized rent to companies who will employ 10 or more citizens…..get creative Excellencies.

Let state compete, let local governments in states compete,

FAAC makes everyone lazy...