So did North Carolina pay too much in tax incentives to win 2,600 jobs from MetLife?

Did Louisiana pay too much to win a promise from IBM for 800 jobs in the Bayou State?

North Carolina local and state incentives added up to as much as $90 million to land the promise of 1,300 jobs in Cary (at $100,000 per year) and another 1,300 in Charlotte.

Louisiana promised IBM $74 million in incentives ranging from an office building and more tech-oriented college courses.

MetLine, meanwhile, promised to invest $125 million in investments to build out its North Carolina facilities.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) wasn’t asked for a dime.

Big Blue deserves praise for pledging to create 800 jobs, but will Louisiana ever recoup that scale an investment for a “service center”?

So which state got the better deal?

Or do these packages illustrate the fact that the competition has grown so fierce for jobs that jobs deals have really gotten too expensive and should be stopped in the name of fiscal responsibility?

Politicians will say “Jobs, jobs.”

States say: “Jobs, jobs.”

Who benefits? Corporations – and the local people who might benefit from getting a new job. (But bear in mind that MetLife is consolidating a lot of jobs from other states, so what net benefit the overall economy will see remains to be seen.)

We’ve written extensively about the MetLife move – the deal itself and reaction (pro, con.)

So let’s look in more detail at the Louisiana “purchase” of IBM promises.

According to the Associated Press report:

  • Louisana promised “about $74 million in public money” over 12 years
  • Of that, $30.5 million is for the office building to be built where IBM will locate in Baton Rouge
  • That deal includes $14.8 million in state money, $3 million in local money and $12.7 million in federal Community Development Block Grant money
  • Some $10 million will be invested in classes to boost the number of college graduates in computer science
  • The sta’es economic development are is pledging “$29.5 million over 12 years, including $1.5 million” from local governments for “workforce costs and facility operation.”
  • IBM was not asked “to put in capital,” as The AP described it. Stephen Moret, secretary of Louisiana Economic Development, told the AP: “Their primary commitment is to create professional jobs, not capital investment,” he wrote in an email. “Any capital investment they make will be incidental to the primary economic benefit: 800 professional jobs. We rarely require capital investment commitments from companies that focus on software development. Certainly they will purchase hundreds of computers, servers, telecommunications equipment, etc., but that really isn’t material in the big picture of this project.”

In a related development, the AP noted that a private foundation plans to build an 11-story residential structure.

So, which state – if either one – got a better deal?