Warren County Should Not Institute An Enhanced Enterprise Zone

The dirty little secret that nobody seems to want to recognize, or
even attempt to uncover, is that Enhanced Enterprise Zone (EEZ), Tax
Increment Financing (TIF), and other subsidies do not work. They do not
succeed in growing the local economy. The panoply of subsidies that come
into play when a large area is declared blighted can have a number of
adverse side effects. They shrink the local tax base, encourage more
government planning of the economy, and increase the chances of eminent
domain abuse. As a famous Swedish economist once said, “It is not by
planting trees or subsidizing tree planting in a desert created by
politicians that the government can promote . . . industry, but by
refraining from measures that create a desert environment.”