Given all the secrecy with the incentives deals to land companies in North Carolina, it's no surprise that negotiators give them code names.
Take Apple, which could receive as much as $46 million in tax breaks over a decade for spending $1 billion on a computer data center in what will likely be the western part of the state. Gov. Beverly Perdue made that deal official on Wednesday, Dan Kane reports.
That project, according to state Sen. David Hoyle, was code named "Dolphin."
He had no idea why. At the very least, it doesn't outright clue you to one of the world's best known computer and computer-related gadget makers.
Hoyle, a Gaston County Democrat and Senate Finance Committee co-chairman, has often said he is not a fan of these incentives, but the state has to play the game or lose well-paying jobs to competing states. He said this week he learned that the state lost out on a bid to bring a company with 750 jobs to Cleveland County.
"Project Flyer" had flown to Atlanta, he said.
Another prospect remains up for grabs in Gaston County, he said. This one would bring about 170 jobs paying an average annual salary of $55,000.
But Hoyle said this company is driving a hard bargain, saying the state has to be more competitive.
Maybe the code name is fitting on this one: "Project Barracuda."
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