Tennessee has committed to at least $60M in economic incentive grants this year

Sep 21, 2022 | Political News

Tennessee has committed to more than $60 million in FastTrack economic incentive grants to businesses this year after committing more than $200 million of the grants to businesses in 2021.

FastTrack grants are state grants sent to local governments for specific infrastructure improvements or to companies to help offset the costs of expanding or moving into the state with the goal of increasing the number of full-time jobs and the average wages of jobs available in an area.

Economists, however, have said that those incentives paid to businesses do not help a state or provide economic benefits but academic research shows that they do lead to large political donations and political benefit to politicians who spearhead the deals.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee was set to be the keynote speaker at the Governor’s Conference on Economic Development, which finished Tuesday at the Omni Hotel in Nashville, but Main Street Nashville reported that the incentive amounts were not mentioned at the conference, which celebrated the projects that received those grants.