In a conference to discuss ideas for the future of Detroit this week, one of the featured speakers was former "Speaker of the House", Newt Gingrich; who oddly enough is from Georgia and has no connection to Detroit. Nevertheless, he proposed that in order for Detroit to survive it had to adopt some extreme measures. Gingrich believes that the problems of Detroit are sufficiently large that " we ought to have a ten year tax holiday".
The mayor and others are considering this as a viable option. The idea being that it would attract business and industry and create an "insourcing" strategy where by companies that would otherwise have their operations in developing countries may be enticed to relocate in Michigan at similar cost levels. One tech firm reports that they could operate in Detroit within a 5 percent margin to working in Brazil.
Is there any other city in North America that could even contemplate allowing a "tax free" base for any duration, let along 10 years? Does this measure possibly create a more dire sense of desperation there by sabotaging the intended measure of what this would propose in the first place. How would people in Detroit feel knowing that their city is competing with developing nations for the "cheapest" place to operate?
Further, what does this mean for the future of the already decimated infrastructure of the city?...Where does the money come from?
Here's some commentary on the article:
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