Corporate welfare for burger chains!

The Dom Post reported:

BurgerFuel is all go in Upper Hutt with a new restaurant and take-away store opening its doors on Main St this week. …

Despite their long scouting and local knowledge Kingi said it was access to city council financial incentives which sealed the Upper Hutt deal.

“That really swung it,” Kingi said.

The council’s economic stimulus package offers a range of concession for qualifying businesses moving into Upper Hutt. 

Kingi estimates financial savings of more han $30,000 through the incentives but he is enthusiastic about all his dealings with the council.

“They have been very, very quick in responding and in helping us out. It’s been amazing really.

 “It’s been a real eye opener and made it such an easy road for us,” he said. .

BurgerFuel Australasia general manager Craig Notman said the city council’s approach was as good as it gets.

“This is the first time we’ve worked with a council that has such a pro-active stimulus package,” he said.

This is appalling.

We now have ratepayer money being spent to persuade burger chains to open a store in their local area. BurgerFuel probably can’t believe their luck.

Have you noticed a shortage of burger restaurants?

There is a real risk of a domino effect where all councils in start offering $32,000 subsidies for businesses to set up there. The winners are the businesses and the losers are ratepayers. This adds nothing to economic growth for NZ.

Councils can do stuff to assist new businesses such as fast tracking of consents and low fees for major new developments. But giving a burgen chain $32,000 to open a new store is a bad thing, and not something we should praise.