Politicians and big government devotees are forever coming up with plans that involve spending lots of money with the promise that the “investment” will pay off tremendously. These plans are always pitched with great enthusiasm and with very favorable projections. Often, however, they flop. Afterwards, the boosters just slink away and change the subject if anyone asks about their pet project.

Here in North Carolina, the UNC Board of Governors has approved a plan for a new research park at East Carolina University. The Greenville area is struggling economically and lots of people think this will give the area a tremendous boost. One skeptic, however, is my colleague Jesse Saffron.

Jesse wrote a critical piece about this plan in June, and received a barrage of email attacking him. In the Pope Center’s piece today, he responds.

While some of these research parks have been successful, others have not, he observes, pointing to similar “investments” at the University of South Carolina, Texas-San Antonio, and the Maryland Science and Technology Center. “Officials in those cases promised thousands of jobs and economic stimulation,” Saffron writes. “Instead, the projects failed to grow their local economies. Hundreds of millions were wasted on what ultimately turned out to be glorified office space.”

I will buttress Saffron’s case by noting that the Global Transpark in Kinston, NC has for years been a drain on the state rather than a worthwhile investment. The same can be said about convention centers in Wilmington, Charlotte and Raleigh. We might also remember that the grandiose redevelopment plan that catalyzed the Kelo case a decade ago also crashed and burned. The plain truth is that politicians are lousy planners because they’re spending other people’s money and won’t lose a penny themselves when their plans fizzle.

If there are sensible investment opportunities near ECU, we should let entrepreneurs who have their own money at stake find them.