Corporate Welfare At Its Finest: Plano Leases Five Acres To Radisson For Free

             ​On June 25, 2018, the City Council voted unanimously to lease five acres of city land for free, so Radisson could build a hotel on it. The land is next to the Plano Event Center.  City staff believes that the new hotel will bring more business to the Plano Event Center and more tourist to Plano. Having a hotel next to the Event Center has been an 18-year goal for Mark Thompson, Executive Director of Visit Plano. Apparently, he has been trying to get a company to build a hotel for 18 years, but no one has agreed until now.   
          There are currently fourteen hotels in the area. The nearest hotel is Fairfield Inn & Suites 3415 Premier Dr, Plano, TX 75023. It is six minutes from the Plano Event Center. The farthest is Super 8 at 1704 N Central Expy, Plano, TX 75074. That is eight minutes away.  Apparently, those fourteen hotels are not helping the Event Center bring in business or tourists. However, city bureaucrats believe a hotel next door to the Event Center should do the trick. Maybe the staff did not see the article in Community Impact that said, "[H]otel occupancy is down in Plano." The article indicates that, while the supply of hotels has gone up, the demand for rooms has gone down.  That is probably why the city had to basically give away land so a company would build a hotel on it. 
          If Radisson really wanted to build a hotel in Plano, it could afford to buy or lease the land. The parent company of Radisson is Marriott International. That company is worth almost 50 billion dollars. In the first quarter of 2018 Marriot International's revenue was $1.23 billion, and its net income was $398 million. Their net profit margin for the first quarter was 32.28%. Clearly, if Marriot thought building a hotel next to the Event Center would be profitable, it could have and would have paid for the land to build a hotel long ago. The government did not have to give the Marriot anything. By giving the land away, the city lost the money it would have made from a sale or a lease agreement. It also sends a message to other companies. If a business wants to come to Plano,  they can hold out for a handout.  
        This deal is a disgrace to the free market and is not capitalism.  In a free market system, the government gets out of the way. It is not supposed to do things to boost or hinder business. Companies succeed or fail on their own. 
       This act of corporate welfare is a prime example of corporatism. Corporatism is a practice invented by the infamous Mussolini, himself. When most people think of Mussolini's fascism, they only think of the violence attached to it. What they forget, is that there is an economic side too.  
     One aspect of Fascist economics is dirigism. This is where the government controls the incentives of investment and economic planning. Using dirigism, the government can restrict any action or promote any action. This can help or hurt companies. When politicians and bureaucrats create stifling regulations, they restrict business. When they give money or other economic incentives to corporations they are promoting it. The goal is to control who succeeds and who doesn't. The result is an all-powerful controlling bureaucratic government that thinks it knows what is best. 
      Do Plano citizens really want a controlling economic fascist local government? I didn't think so... 
But what do the people know? According to the City, nothing. For we are only providing their paycheck. 
This is Plano's Political Pit Bull Signing Off