The GoLocalProv Business Team has a great catch related to the deal that Democrat Governor Gina Raimondo’s Commerce Corp. just made to bribe online printing company Vistaprint to open facilities in the state:

The Raimondo Administration on Wednesday announced that Vistaprint and the potential of 125 new jobs are coming to Rhode Island over the next three years. But, RI Commerce admitted in a phone interview that they were unaware that one of Vistaprint’s competitor Moo.com is already located in Lincoln, Rhode Island. Moo.com is a design driven competitor who has been building its business in RI since 2009.

This discovery gets to the heart of the problem when government decides to be a player in the business world.  An investor picks a company and has no ethical quandary with his or her preferring that company over others.  A representative government respectful of individual rights and the free market isn’t supposed to do that.

State Commerce Secretary Stefan Prior tells GoLocal that Moo.com is free to apply for incentives, too, but what if there’s another Rhode Island company competing in this space?  Or, to take the next, easy step, what about other companies that aren’t in that particular type of business?  Ultimately, they’re all competing for the same dollars, employees, and so on, and taxpayers can’t subsidize every business.

This entire approach to economic development is presumptuous and a shortsighted reach for the headlines.  In the GoLocal article, Raimondo points directly to the problem when she says:

Governor Gina Raimondo said about the announcement of Vistaprint “The economy is growing, and today’s announcement means more good-paying jobs for Rhode Islanders. I’m thrilled that Vistaprint Corporate has chosen Rhode Island for its national sales office. Rhode Island provides exactly what Vistaprint Corporate was looking for-access to talent, a high quality of life, fiscally responsible incentives to make our state competitive during its search and long-term potential for growth.” (Emphasis added.)

That can’t be true.  If it were, the state wouldn’t have to bribe the company.  A better economic development plan would be to make it true by lowering taxes and regulations.