Nevada to Get Tesla's Gigafactory

The race to the bottom is never over. No state has yet been awarded a Tesla battery factory. Musk is still playing the field.

 

No, the fat lady won't ever sing. She'll be drowned at the bottom of the subsidy pool.

 

If it's a straw man argument you'd like to make... find a better one.

 

If he is as smart as I think he is, he'll 'play the field' for so long as it is possible for any of his partners to play politician and renege on promises.

You do know that the NV legislature still has to sign off on the deal, right ?

 

Exactly. They're no fools, either.

 

While it seems counter-intuitive, I think the Nevada politicians would rather have the factory there than not there, and lose out on all those jobs, along with the other jobs that would be needed to sustain all those workers, such as houses, food, clothing, entertainment, etc.

Sure, there's no corporate or personal income tax, but they have a sales tax, and those people working there are going to need stuff to survive. And while it's not right next to Vegas, it's just a short plane ride or within road trip distance in case the workers want to gamble some of their money away.

I hope that the gamble pays off for them.

 

Nevada is very low tax state
2014 State Business Tax Climate Index | Tax Foundation

There are also casinos in Reno and Lake Tahoe. What this does is help diversify the jobs a little away away from entertainment (gambling, skiiing, prostitution) that provide the bulk of jobs in the state. Its a lot of money per job though.

We should get away from the idea that the money came because tesla is green. We can look at subsidies for toyota's newest two plants for that. Note, I think toyota honestly got the numbers wrong, but it worked out that subsidies simply moved jobs from california to mississippi and texas. Toyota got direct subsidiies of $133 million to expand tundra production in texas (from indiana) and $300 million to move and expand highlander imports from japan to mississippi. Texas was to recieve 1850 jobs, and the current mayor of san antonio, then a councilman helped push the subsidies for toyota. Higher Demand for the tundra only materialized for 1 year, 2007, then dropped back down, and toyota decided to shut down tundra production in Indiana, but moved the Highlander there. $433 million to toyota for texas to gain 1850, inidiana retrained the work, no new jobs in mississippi. Toyota said they would make the prius in mississippi, a bigger gain than the highlander, but.... they canceled that. Texas plant was big compared to real production. Solution? Toyota moved the tacoma and 1000 jobs from california to texas, makig nummi lose more money but made the texas plant more profitable. Toyota got anouther $50 Million to reduce pollution at the texas plant, which should have been part of the initial design, but hell its ok now $483 million in subsidies now, plus subsidized electricity and continued lowered property tax. GM pulled out of nummi, which could have easily produced the highlander but more expensively than indiana, corolla jobs moved to mississipppi. Result $483 million subsidies to toyota for 1850 new highlander jobs. Toyota got reduced cost to produce the tundra, tacoma, highlander, and corolla, and pays less in texas and mississippi than they did in california, but these are good jobs in both states. Nevada is spending less per job.