The Tennessee State Funding Board approved a measure this week to grant Starbucks a $30 million economic development grant to support the company’s move to Nashville.
Starbucks announced plans earlier this year to invest $100 million into a new Southeast regional headquarters in downtown Nashville, a project expected to create up to 2,000 jobs over the next several years. State officials said the positions would carry an average annual salary of roughly $125,000, amounting to an estimated $250 million yearly payroll.
The board signed off on the $30 million incentive package for the coffee giant during its meeting on Wednesday despite outspoken opposition from Americans for Prosperity – Tennessee Grassroots Director Pamela Furr.
During the meeting’s public comment period, Furr urged the board to reject the proposal, arguing Tennessee’s economic success has been built on low taxes and economic freedom rather than government incentives.
“If Tennessee is already one of the best places in America to do business, why are taxpayers being asked to subsidize one of the largest corporations in the world?” Furr asked board members. “Government should not be in the business of selectively rewarding companies with taxpayer dollars.”
Furr also questioned whether past incentive deals tied to projects such as Ultium Cells and Oracle Corporation delivered on promises of transformational growth, asking whether Tennessee has adequately enforced “clawback” provisions when companies fail to meet hiring or investment targets.
“I urge this board not only to reject this Starbucks incentive package, but to reconsider the broader use of fasttrack grants moving forward. Tennessee does not need to buy prosperity. We already have it,” Furr concluded her remarks.
Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner Stuart McWhorter responded that the state would enforce its clawback policies if Starbucks does not fulfill its commitments.
The incentive package for Starbucks has also been criticized by the Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee, whose policy director Jason Edmonds argued taxpayers should not act as “venture capitalists for Fortune 500 companies.”
“The $30 million in taxpayer dollars could fund lavish corporate office space for one of the world’s largest companies, or it could be used to repave up to 500 miles of Tennessee roads, or hire troopers and emergency personnel for scalding coffee burns (instead of funding fake ones on TV). A latte can fuel you during that eight-hour drive, but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who prefers coffee over smoother roads,” Edmonds wrote on the Beacon Center’s blog.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Starbucks Coffeehouse” by Starbucks.
Starbucks, of all the liberal operations, gets my tax dollars to bring their politics to Tennessee. That is flat out wrong.
I have been after my high-ranking state representative to stop giving slush fund money to the so-called economic development cabal. The rep would not or could not tell me how many millions of dollars are set aside in the state budget for this taxpayer sell out.
If Tennessee is such a wonderful place or businesses to expand/re-locate then the businesses will do it with their own money.
Companies move here due to the massive benefits, including taxes, the qualified workforce, etc. And, they are escaping the dump they are currently operating in. Why would you need to throw money at the??? It’s like taking the weirdest-looking dude and paying him to date a supermodel. Just doesn’t make sense.
Government at all levels. Please stop giving our hard-earned tax monies to these billion dollar corporations. This practice needs to stop immediately