The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Hyundai breaks ground on massive Georgia EV plant
Hyundai Motor Group held a groundbreaking ceremony on its new electric vehicle plant, a project which received a state record of $1.8 billion in public subsidies. Construction is well underway, but Gov. Brian Kemp is locked in a tight re-election campaign. Kemp used the event to tout other achievements, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Good Jobs First Senior Research Analyst Kasia Tarczynska told the AJC said the market was moving toward electrification and makers, buoyed by billions in federal subsidies, were following suit.
“Why do states and localities need to subsidize projects that will happen no matter what,” she told AJC. “There are huge opportunity costs here.”
Despite significant and wide-ranging research economic development subsidies are ineffective, they are popular among elected officials, who enjoy increased campaign contributions and a boost in the polls.
“Thus, political rent extraction may be the best explanation for the continued existence and popularity of these relatively ineffective incentive programs in states,” according to the paper, “The Political Economy of State Economic Development Incentives: A Case of Rent Extraction.”
Read the full story at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.