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There was grumbling at the Triangle Game Conference in Raleigh last week, The News & Observer reported, because North Carolina doesn't give tax credits to video-game developers.

"If we don't offer incentives, I think we're going to start losing companies," an industry insider said.

The Triangle does have a nice cluster of about 30 companies employing 1,200 workers, many of whom are paid very well to design video games that more and more Americans play at home or even on hand-held gadgets. It would be a shame to lose them to other states or even countries that offer lucrative deals.

Not that North Carolina won't get in the game. It's a habitual player. In fact, Gov. Bev Perdue last week proposed a new package of tax breaks and incentives for small businesses, an across-the-board approach that makes more sense than writing legislation that applies to a single industry or even one company -- although North Carolina has done that often enough.

With the state facing another huge budget deficit, however, the issue of tax breaks warrants close examination. The argument that tax relief or special deals help business, and that stronger businesses boost the economy, is powerful. Taken to its logical conclusion, though, it would lead to eliminating all taxes on businesses. What company wouldn't think that was great? But would that count as responsible public policy?

The state's practice of granting special tax breaks draws skepticism from both ends of the political spectrum.

Robert Orr of the conservative N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law opposes incentives, noting that the state "has paid or promised hundreds of millions in public revenue to Google, Apple, Deutsche Bank, Novartis, Siemens Energy and numerous other companies, all while state and local governments reduce public services due to revenue shortfalls."

Elaine Mejia of the liberal N.C. Justice Center, meanwhile, asserts there are "countless examples of costly tax preferences that the state has established over years that have not been evaluated."

This is an important time for leaders in the state's executive and legislative branches to conduct those evaluations and make sure they're not letting needed revenue slip away without the people of North Carolina receiving value in return. They should not fund ineffective state programs or grant unproductive tax breaks.

That's especially imperative when more tax increases are being considered on top of $1 billion in tax hikes enacted last year. This time a hospital tax is on the table.

No tax increases should be in the works unless every tax break already allowed can be justified and every spending program is providing service worth its cost.

It's natural that businesses such as video-game developers want tax breaks, but they also should want to work in a state that has money for schools, roads and other needs.