1. Indiana’s state economic development arm refuses to say how much in incentives it offered Amazon for HQ2, Pat Garofalo writes at Boondoggle.
Taxpayers in Indiana, in fact, may never know what their state offered up to Amazon in their name, as a long effort to wrench that information out of the government’s hands has come up short.
2. At Propmodo, Kyle Hagerty writes about enormous state economic development subsidies, particularly in Texas.
Economic development tax abatements given to corporations alone cost public school districts $2.37 billion in foregone revenue in the fiscal year 2019, a 13 percent increase in just two years, according to a recent report from Good Jobs First. That was before the pandemic tanked practically every office market in the country. Now, offering the right incentives to attract jobs and relocations is a matter of survival, not just greed. A vicious cycle is picking up speed.
3. “Foxconn Finally Admits Con,” but the state may still have to pay as much as $1.34 billion to the manufacturer (The American Prospect).
The only saving grace in this complete disaster is how obvious it makes the case that corporate welfare deals like this are rotten.
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