Charlotte City Council voted 7-4 on Monday to give Carowinds' parent company $330,000 in incentives to help expand the amusement park. Tonight, the County Commission will vote on whether to hand over an additional $590,000 in incentives, bringing the total local government package to $920,000. Cedar Fair, the parent company, says it's going to spend $43.5 million expanding Carowinds, including the addition of an extra 60-or-so acres to the park, and it wants some help. The incentives measure passed council scrutiny, although no one has even hinted that Cedar Fair would not go ahead with the expansion if it didn't get the incentive package, and despite objections from some council members that Carowinds' summer hiring plans pay too little.
Carowinds says that along with 15 new full-time jobs, it will also hire 270 part-timers next summer at an hourly wage of between $8.10 and $8.25. Councilman Patrick Cannon, who is also the Democratic nominee for mayor in the upcoming election, voted against the incentives because the proposed low wages give him "heartburn and concern." That's good - they should give him concern. They should give the rest of us concern as well, including the county commissioners who will vote tonight on the majority of the incentives money.
Charlotte and Mecklenburg County need a living wage law for situations in which taxpayers are asked to give incentives to businesses. Local taxpayers should not have to subsidize any company that will not pay its local employees - teenaged or adult, full-time or part-time - a living wage. That's simple common sense if A.) local government officials give a rip about wage levels for the area, and B.) anyone is expected to believe the sparkling predictions of economic benefits we always hear during incentives debates. FYI, the living wage for Charlotte/Mecklenburg, as calculated by economists at MIT, is $10.02 per hour.
More than 120 U.S. municipalities, including Durham and Asheville, have passed living wage laws that establish wage standards for companies that receive local government subsidies. Most living wage laws also give employers incentives to provide health care coverage. Councilman Patrick Cannon's concerns about Carowinds' low wages for its part-timers are more than justified. Here's hoping a proposal for a living wage law is in his future plans.
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