I can attest to the tax concession tactics of Walmart. The town I live near (Dunn, NC) gave up the bucks to get Walmart to locate there 6-7 years ago. They built their nice big store on a nice big lot. Then a few other stores went up on the out parcels. Time came for the tax incentives to run out they came back looking for a handout, city says no. They move 1 mile down the road into another town that gave them the tax breaks they were looking for, leaving behind a big empty shell building. And of course the stores on the out parcels moved too. What is really, really sad is the town they moved to used to have the largest Denim Plant in the world and at it's peak employed over 2,000 people. When it closed in 1999 the average rate of pay was around $15 and hour, now those jobs have been replaced by 470 jobs at Walmart with an average rate of pay around $7.50...

I agree with TimJ about unsolicited emails from out of town folks. However I think an email campaign from local folks with a very vocal support would be an excellent idea. I applaud your commission for sticking to their ethics and values. They are setting a good and strong example.

Aaron