When Dell decided to close down its Forsyth County, North Carolina plant five years after opening its doors, one that the state of North Carolina secured by offering Dell $318 million in various incentives, the debate concerning whether or not the state should have offered so much money has been reborn. While North Carolina’s then-governor Mike Easley argued that the plant would create 8,000 jobs, the plant’s closure has quickly ended those jobs.
The politicians that lobbied for the incentives package argue that Dell could have succeeded with the plant and that their opening the plant in the first place was …read more

According to an official from North Carolina’s Carteret County, former governor Mike Easley and his wife, Mary, have been named as one of the buyers of a property whose price was overstated in tax records. This worked out to a $137,000 discount on the home that was not recorded in the $550,000 purchases price.
 
A county tax supervisor stated that distorting the purchase price of one home can result in distorted appraisals for other homes in the area. The transaction factors into a larger mortgage fraud case in which more than 200 plaintiffs have stated that they were deceived into paying …read more