Word is Dell will keep the Winston-Salem plant open for a few more months allowing around 400 workers a little more breathing room. No further information is out there as of yet but I’m sure we will see local leaders take all the credit somehow.

Dell has informed the state that it believes it met the requirements during it’s years of operating in North Carolina and will not repay those monies. Governor Bev Purdue and other state representatives have said Dell would be forced to repay all the incentive money they were given however Dell has claimed some $6 million is covered in the agreements and will not be repaid. The Governor’s Office has released a “corrected” statement saying Dell may be able to keep some North Carolina taxpayer money.

So Mayor Joines has told Dell he expects them to repay some 26.5 Million Dollars in direct payments and expenses linked to bring Dell to North Carolina and in theory it appears Dell has agreed in their reply letter. Of course this does not include any of the cost associated with road projects completed for Dell, wine and dines that surely took place, travel by city and county officials, etc, etc.

This is pretty sad to see Dell charge two different prices for the same product or service.

On the Dell Business site go select a Dell Inspiron 15 and at a base price of $659 it cost $100 to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional from Windows 7 Home Premium:

If however you select a Vostro 220 based priced at $419 and want to upgrade from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional it’s $70. The difference is the Vostro runs x86 or a 32 bit OS and the Inpiron x64 or a 64 bit OS for which Microsoft does not charge a difference.

In what was repeated over and over by every news source in the state Governor Bev Perdue was quoted as saying she expected Dell to pay back every “red cent” when in fact she never said that but rather she would “will go to bed every night hoping to get every red cent back that Dell has received.” Slight difference in the two which is neither here or there as the Governor now understands this is not the case and Dell will pay back on 1.5 Million of the 8 Million or more the state gave away. Of course this just refers to the money the state gave away and not the millions both Winston-Salem and Forsyth County handed over.

Governor Perdue may need to wake up to the real world.

More news to follow but yes folks it’s all over, that Boondoggle, multi-million dollar tax give away is closing it’s doors!

Here’s the follow-up. Dell will lay off 600 workers by next month with the remaining workers to be laid on January. The number Dell cites is 935 total however some dispute there are that many employees currently at the plant. Frank Miller, Vice President for Public Business Unit Supply Chain, was quoted as saying Dell will meet all agreements it had in place with North Carolina, Forsyth County and Winston-Salem which should be interesting to see since the bulk of the agreement was to employ some 1,700 workers which it never did. There was at least $37 million in incentives directly given to Dell to locate in North Carolina not to mention the millions of hidden cost in road construction, rezoning, and such.

“The opening of this facility means hundreds of hardworking North Carolinians now have good jobs that bring better benefits and better skills to the transitioning Piedmont Triad economy,” said Gov. Easley. “In addition, the Dell project will provide more than $700 million in net revenue over 20 years to our state. This project makes good economic sense for North Carolina and we are proud to have such a well-respected global company in our state.” October 2005

Oh well just one more giant tax giveaway to private business. Of course this will certainly result in changes to the FedEx Hub plans which have already been pushed back in terms of it’s staffing. The loss of another 900 jobs on top of the 300 from PACE Airlines really spells out the trend for North Carolina employment which at this point is already above 10.8% and one of the highest in the nation.

On a brighter note Winston-Salem has released some of the 50 pages of documents associated with the tax payer funded baseball park so Billy Prim will get his nearly $50 million dollar stadium which he said would not cost the tax payers a dime.

Unemployment in North Caroline had more than doubled since April 2008 and is higher than the National average for May by 2%. When compared to other states in the Southeast only South Carolina is higher with 11.6%. When we look across the state line at our neighbors we find, Virginia at 7%, Georgia at 9.5%, Florida at 9.7%. What is even worse in comparison is when we look at the so called “Deep South” where one might expected higher unemployment we find both Mississippi at 9.6%, and Alabama at 9.3%. Louisiana with it’s 6.3% is almost half of North Carolina’s unemployment rate!.

So what are these states doing that a state with $4.7 BILLION budget deficit isn’t doing? What are these states doing that Governor Bev Purdue isn’t doing with her proposed $1.6 BILLION in new taxes? What are these states doing that Governor Bev Purdue isn’t doing with her proposed Recreation Tax which will likely force summer day camps in this state to close? Read the rest of this entry »

A bit late on this story but that’s mainly because the facts are just not there as to how many people have in fact been laid off. Reports vary however it appears the number is as high as 200 which is on top of the 300 in March. In our earlier post we reminded everyone of the at least $320 million state and local governments gave Dell to come to North Carolina at a time when Dell’s margins were getting thinner and thinner. Since that time Dell has remained silent on their employment numbers and is seeking to sell it’s Triad plant.