Who's Subsidizing the Electric Car?

Posted by Phil Mattera, Clawback at 4:50 AM on September 9, 2008.

Flint Â… General Motors Â… electric car Â… subsidies -- where to begin?

Announcements by U.S. cities of subsidy packages for new automobile
plants have become commonplace, but the most recent one is fraught
with irony. Last week, the city council of Flint, Michigan voted
unanimously to grant several tax breaks to General Motors in
connection with the construction of a facility that will produce
engines for the companyÂ’s planned plug-in electric car called the
Chevrolet Volt, which is expected to start production in 2010.

The deal includes a 15-year, 50 percent abatement of real property
taxes on a new 500,000 square-foot plant, a 100 percent abatement of
taxes on personal property (i.e. equipment) and the designation of the
site as a brownfield redevelopment, which would make the plant
eligible for additional state tax breaks. Flint officials have not yet
released an estimate of the total cost of the package.

Flint Â… General Motors Â… electric car Â… subsidies -- where to begin?