Fairfax County opens Boston office to lure New England companies.

[JD984]

Originally Posted by Fern435

Interesting article, JEB77. Thank you.

It seems that all is fair in competition for companies/agencies--when Fairfax County feels they have the dominant position. But when Metro submits a proposal for its 78 acres at the Greenbelt station for the new FBI headquarters, Fairfax County says that is not fair:

Fairfax official says Metro is playing favorites in fight for FBI headquarters - The Washington Post

It seems to me that they are competing for jobs in a variety of circumstances where it's fair to emphasize your comparative strengths and probably never safe to assume you have a "dominant position."

While I don't know how the FBI employees and their families would feel, I would be happy from a regional perspective if the FBI moved to PG. Of course, if PG gains more employers and taxpayers, it may be fair to look to PG to contribute more to bodies like WMATA in the future as well.

[GustavoFring]

Originally Posted by Fern435

Interesting article, JEB77. Thank you.

It seems that all is fair in competition for companies/agencies--when Fairfax County feels they have the dominant position. But when Metro submits a proposal for its 78 acres at the Greenbelt station for the new FBI headquarters, Fairfax County says that is not fair:

Fairfax official says Metro is playing favorites in fight for FBI headquarters - The Washington Post

Of course, everyone around here knows that the new FBI HQ will end up in Fairfax, Alexandria or DC. Maryland will make overtures, but any attention from those deciding will simply be to show they did due diligence. There is literally no chance the FBI HQ ends up in PG. PG hasn't done a single thing right in the last 40 years, and employers know that.

[brooklynborndad]

Originally Posted by JEB77

Whether you call it a "race to the bottom" or a "race to the top," the notion that individual counties in different states are going to play nice with one another, and not actively compete for jobs, seems almost other-worldly to me. I mean, I guess we could have "Central Planning" decide exactly which jobs are going to be based in which states, but then if we had "Central Planning," it would probably be based in DC and Fairfax would have even more people.

I wouldnt want a central plan to decide - I would want the market to decide, with an even playing field.

At a minimum, no special inducement/tax breaks to companies to move - I suspect almost all state and local govts would be okay with that, as those things tend to cancel out, and result simply in a net transfer from everyone else to the more mobile employers - of course said employers would lobby against it, and it would probably not pass - even if it were constitutional, which I am not sure.

Beyond that, the problem is competition based on cutting taxes by cutting social services. The clear best way to deal with that is to provide as many social services as possible at the national level, or at least via federal funding. Thats certainly something in the background in the debates over welfare reform, healthcare, etc.

This is true for some areas of business regulation as well, though clearly not all. That some states will prefer more "business friendly" policies due to their own values is going to be inevitable - I would as a citizen simply suggest that we pass those that meet our own values, and not go beyond that in "business friendliness" in order to induce movement from other states. And if inducing that movement is too hard to resist (which it may well be) at least that we understand that such inducement is what is going on, and that its not evidence for the benefit of such policies on a national scale.

[brooklynborndad]

Originally Posted by Fern435

Interesting article, JEB77. Thank you.

It seems that all is fair in competition for companies/agencies--when Fairfax County feels they have the dominant position. But when Metro submits a proposal for its 78 acres at the Greenbelt station for the new FBI headquarters, Fairfax County says that is not fair:

Fairfax official says Metro is playing favorites in fight for FBI headquarters - The Washington Post

if FFX thinks metro is playing favorites, they should point out the WMATA property near a metro, large enough for the FBI, that they want a similar deal for.

[brooklynborndad]

Originally Posted by JEB77

While I don't know how the FBI employees and their families would feel, I would be happy from a regional perspective if the FBI moved to PG. Of course, if PG gains more employers and taxpayers, it may be fair to look to PG to contribute more to bodies like WMATA in the future as well.

i thought WMATA contribution was based on miles of service, numbers of stations, and numbers of riders, not on total employers and taxpayers.

If its the latter, Loudoun has something big coming

[JD984]

Originally Posted by brooklynborndad

i thought WMATA contribution was based on miles of service, numbers of stations, and numbers of riders, not on total employers and taxpayers.

If its the latter, Loudoun has something big coming

May be, but presumably with an FBI station and/or other new employers near the Greenbelt metro, there would be more riders.