Tax subsidies for development projects in Providence have been a contentious subject in recent years. Edward Mazze, a professor of business administration at URI, took on the "let's-make-a-deal state" with a smart op-ed in Saturday's ProJo.
In particular, Mazze calls for a hard look at the reality and rhetoric of fostering business in the state:
In an era of transparency and accountability, it is time for the state to develop a scorecard to measure the real impact of the economic deals made in the last 10 years to attract and keep industry. This scorecard should be updated every two years with a report to the state’s taxpayers. The scorecard could be used in evaluating future deals so that they do not create a long-term financial burden on the state after those who made the deal are no longer in state or local government.