From The Star-News of Wilmington, Oct. 13

Four years ago, North Carolina held out the welcome mat and the promise of $242 million in state incentives to Dell Computer for building a new plant in Winston-Salem. Now the company is leaving for good. A lot of people are using this case to urge a halt to incentives.

That won’t happen. Incentives have become an indispensable part of states’ business recruiting strategy, and they often pay off many times over. A state that drops incentives takes itself out of the running for many new jobs. But what happened with Dell provides a solid argument for the Honorables in Raleigh to consider how incentives are doled out and whether the state should put more of that money into workforce training programs, roads, water, sewer infrastructure and other strong business lures.

Even the biggest backers of incentives acknowledge that they do not guarantee that a company will stay. This was a business decision, and North Carolina doesn’t have anywhere near enough money to persuade Dell to keep the plant open. The company will pay back millions and will forfeit the rest. But the impending departure is a severe blow to the people who have lost their jobs, and the community that has lost another employer.

The thought of handing millions of dollars to a company that has no inherent loyalty to a community is hard for many taxpayers to swallow. The Dell incentives were even more controversial than most such deals because of their size and the considerable secrecy surrounding the combined local/state package of more than $300 million.

At one point the company was promising up to 2,000 jobs. About 900 people are working at the Forsyth County plant that will soon close. The state and local governments held secret talks with the computer giant, which apparently also was looking at neighboring Virginia, which offered considerably less than North Carolina.

But as long as other states and other nations are willing to play, North Carolina must play to win. Most of the time, the state and community more than get back what is paid out in incentives.

More than $4 million in incentives are being offered to Titan to build one of the nation’s largest cement plants. It is controversial, yes, but Titan has promised to invest more than $400 million into the local economy. From a strictly financial standpoint, that’s an excellent expected return on investment.

And although Dell is leaving after a few short years, it has added to the economic bottom line while it has been in the state.

Incentives are a gamble, however. North Carolina and Forsyth County gambled that Dell would provide a long-term source of jobs and economic strength. It didn’t. One consolation: At least the company won’t leave town with the taxpayers’ money.