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2014: A Landmark Year for Subsidy Accountability

January 14, 2015

Two-thousand fourteen was a banner year for our movement, hands down. The first move to require standardized subsidy-cost reporting! The first half of a legally-binding two-state cease fire deal! The first state ban on tax-break commissions! A big surge found in state disclosure of subsidies! Big improvements to our Subsidy Tracker, enabling first-ever mash-ups! And a governor apparently shamed to stop his partisan job piracy forays!

GASB Finally Weighs In: After a decades-long conspicuous absence, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) announced in October that it would soon issue a draft standard to require states and localities to account for the revenue they lose to economic development tax breaks.

This is a truly tectonic event in the decades-long struggle to rein in corporate tax breaks. When states and localities start issuing the new data in 2017, we predict it will enable massive new bodies of analysis and policymaking: in state and local finance, tax policy, government transparency, economic development, regionalism and sprawl, public education finance, and campaign finance.

The day the Exposure Draft was published on October 31, we swung into action, issuing a critique of it, speaking on two webinars and answering many queries. We are posting exemplary comments here.  If you haven’t filed a comment with GASB yet, the deadline is January 30. Contact us ASAP if you need help.

FASB Enters the Debate, Too! In late December, GASB’s sister group, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which effectively regulates private-sector bookkeeping, revealed that it too is debating whether and how to require disclosure of state and local tax breaks by the recipient corporations. The FASB process is well behind that of GASB, but this is equally tectonic.  See “Disclosures by Business Entities about Government Assistance.”

Missouri Enacts Half of a Bi-State Cease-Fire: In July, Missouri’s “red” legislature and “blue” governor agreed on legislation that is the first time a state has enacted a legally binding half of a two-state “cease fire” in the economic war among the states. Kansas has until July 2016 to reciprocate: the ball is in your court, Gov. Sam Brownback!  Credit for this victory belongs to a group of 17 Kansas City-area businesses, led by Hallmark, who went public in 2011.

Disclosure Found in 47 States plus DC: In January, we issued our latest 50-state “report card” study on state transparency of company-specific subsidy data. We found that only three states—get with it, Delaware, Idaho and Kansas!—are still failing to disclose online (more than double the 23 states we found disclosing in 2007). But we also found that reporting of actual jobs created and actual wages paid is still lagging: only one in four major state subsidy programs discloses actual job-creation outcomes and only one in eleven reports wages.

First-Ever Ban on Tax-Break Consultant Commissions: In September, California became the first state to ever ban consultant commissions on an economic development tax break. It’s a reform we have long called for and would become commonplace if states registered and regulated tax-break consultants as lobbyists.

Subsidy Tracker “2.0” Upgrade: In February, we unveiled a massive upgrade to Subsidy Tracker, linking more than 30,000 subsidy awards to their ultimate corporate parents and issuing “Subsidizing the Corporate One Percent,” showing that just 965 companies have received three-fourths of recorded subsidy dollars. Later in the year, we mashed up Tracker data with the Forbes 400 and with low-wage employers to reveal more than $21 billion in subsidies fueling economic inequality.

Perry Quits Partisan Job Piracy: 2014 was also notable for what didn’t happen. After our September 2013 study chastising Texas Gov. Rick Perry for making interstate job piracy a partisan sport and for issuing deceptive disclaimers about who funded his highly publicized trips to six states with Democratic governors (Texas taxpayers are footing part of the bill)—and a follow-up blog basically daring him to do it again—he never did, and will leave office January 20th.

Truth in TIF Taxation: In July, Cook County, Illinois started showing property taxpayers how much (in both dollars and percent) of their taxes are going to tax increment financing (TIF) districts, the largest jurisdiction known to be doing that in the U.S.

Property Tax Losses Revealed: In studies covering Chicago and Memphis, we revealed that property tax losses—either to TIF in Chicago or PILOTs in Memphis—are costing enormous sums that could be meeting other needs: 1/10th and 1/7th, respectively, of their entire property tax bases. The studies helped block a tax hike in Chicago and changed the debate in Memphis.

Privatization Slowed: Only one more state privatized its economic development agency: North Carolina. After our October 2013 study, Creating Scandals Instead of Jobs, documenting scandals nationwide, provoked editorials in three of the Tarheel State’s leading newspapers, Gov. Robert McCrory’s plans to fast-track a new privatized entity were slowed. It was later created, but with many of the safeguards we recommend if a state chooses such a structure.

Transit Investments as Economic Development Done Right: In case studies in St. Paul and Normal, Illinois, we documented the broad job-creation benefits for more than a dozen Building Trades crafts when transportation investments build transit hubs that spur massive new transit-oriented development. We even gave cautious approval to Normal’s use of a related TIF district.

It was also the year Tesla ran a five-state public auction for a battery plant. Kudos to the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, California Budget Project, Southwest Organizing project in New Mexico, Arizona PIRG and Texans for Public Justice who staged a high-profile outcry with us, calling out Tesla for its Old Economy whipsawing behavior. Ultimately, Nevada overspent for the trophy deal at $1.3 billion and will go down in history as the birthplace of what we dubbed the “tax credit capture zone,” a new benchmark for tax-break greed.

Almost a Record Year for “Megadeals.” As we found in an update of our “Megadeals” study and entries in our Subsidy Tracker database: we now have 298 such deals documented over $60 million and some over $1 billion. Only 2013, with its record Boeing megadeal of $8.7 billion, cost more than 2014.

Finally, 2014 was the year we said goodbye to Bettina Damiani after her stunning 13-year streak of achievements at Good Jobs New York: the best local disclosure law in the country (won in 2005 and later improved); an online database of >41,000 deals; a radical overhaul of the process by which the NYC IDA relates to the public (enabling project interventions from diverse grassroots groups); $11 million in improper rent deductions disgorged by the New York Yankees; a racetrack defeated on Staten Island wetlands; and assistance to hundreds of community groups, unions, environmentalists and journalists challenging the status quo. One of Bettina’s tangible legacies: the space for new mayor Bill de Blasio to do things like saying no to JP Morgan Chase’s demand for $1 billion to move across Manhattan (with our database documenting its huge past subsidies and job shortfalls).

If you like what we do, please support Good Jobs First: we have a lot in the works for 2015, too!

Posted in California, Corporate relocations, GASB, Job Piracy, Kansas, Missouri, New York, Privatized Economic Development Agency, Property Taxes, Smart Growth, Subsidies, Subsidy Tracker, Tax Credits, Texas, Transit, war among the states, Yankee Stadium | Leave a Comment »

Report: Sprawling Job Piracy among Cities and Suburbs Can Be Ended

July 10, 2014

Denver Illustration191px

Washington, DC – The most common form of job piracy-among neighboring localities in the same metro area-can be ended, as agreements in the Denver and Dayton metro areas have proved for decades. The agreements prohibit active recruitment within the metro area, and they require communication and transparency between affected development officials if a company signals it might move.

Those are the main conclusions of a new study released today by Good Jobs First. “Ending Job Piracy, Building Regional Prosperity,” is online at www.goodjobsfirst.org.

The study finds that even regions like the Twin Cities, with revenue-sharing systems intended to deter job piracy, have rampant job piracy because they lack the procedural safeguards Denver and Dayton have. Multi-state metro areas like Kansas City suffer the problem on steroids because state subsidies fuel the problem.

Career economic development professional staff-not elected officials-are best suited to institute anti-piracy systems, although politicians and the public generally should be educated about the value of such agreements. Information-sharing about companies considering relocation is also key. And states need to amend incentive codes to stop requiring local subsidies to match state awards, to deny state monies for intra-state relocations, and to deny eligibility for such relocations to locally administered tax increment financing (TIF) districts. These changes will deter job piracy and promote regionalism, the study concludes.

“The anti-piracy agreements we describe focus on economic development professionals communicating openly with each other in a transparent system,” said Leigh McIlvaine, GJF research analyst and lead author of the study. “When local officials cooperate for the benefit of the metro area, they can better focus on attracting investment and jobs that are truly new.”

“We know from previous studies that intra-regional job piracy fuels job sprawl, harming older areas, communities of color and transit-dependent workers,” said GJF executive director Greg LeRoy. “By favoring retention, anti-piracy agreements help stabilize employment in areas that need help the most, and areas that provide more commuters the choice of transit.”

Good Jobs First is a non-partisan, non-profit group promoting accountable development and smart growth for working families. Founded in 1998, it is based in Washington, DC.

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Posted in Colorado, Corporate relocations, Hidden Taxpayer Costs, Job Piracy, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Sprawl, Tax Increment Financing, war among the states | Leave a Comment »

Missouri Seeks Cease-Fire in Kansas City Border War

July 2, 2014

borderwar01-1200xx900-506-0-85A bill signed this week by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has the potential to solve one aspect of the wasteful jobs border war currently ravaging the Kansas City metropolitan economy: the use of state subsidies to fuel intra-regional business relocations.  Senate Bill 635 would prohibit the state’s business subsidies from being awarded to businesses relocating within the two-state metro area from Kansas to Missouri.  However, the law will only go into effect if Kansas enacts a companion law limiting its own use of state business incentives in the Kansas City metro within the next two years.

The legislation was sponsored by state Sen. Ryan Silvey (R-Kansas City), who called the practice of subsidizing companies to hop the border “senseless.”  The bill also had the support of the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, which stated that it was one of its “highest legislative priorities.”  One of the most vocal supporters of the effort to end the border war is a coalition of metropolitan business leaders, who in 2011 submitted an open letter to governors in both states demanding a cease-fire on the use of subsidies for intra-regional relocations.  And in June, while awaiting Gov. Nixon’s signature on SB635, the business coalition again appealed to both leaders in an open letter:

“For the last several years, both states have followed a destructive practice of encouraging a cross border job shuffle. This has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and it has generated little or no new economic activity. Neither state is a winner in this game as one state loses tax revenue while the other state forgives it.”

For its part, Kansas has signaled little interest in supporting a companion bill, citing the need of local suburban jurisdictions to pursue their own economic development agendas.  This is an ironic position to take, given the extent to which state subsidies have interfered in metropolitan economic dynamics in the region.  The best way to allow localities to pursue their own economic development agendas would be for both states to stop providing ammunition for the border war.

Posted in Job Piracy, Kansas, Missouri, Subsidies, war among the states | 2 Comments »

Missouri Gives Rick Perry a Taste of His Own Medicine

August 30, 2013

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been spending much of his time lately traveling to other states with the overt aim of luring their companies and thus poaching their jobs. In the run-up to his recent trip to Missouri, Gov. Jay Nixon and other state officials have been seeking to turn the tables on Perry.

Click on the image to listen to Gov. Perry ad

Click on the image to listen to Gov. Perry’s ad

In Missouri television and radio ads paid for by a public-private group called TexasOne, Perry criticizes Nixon for vetoing a tax cut bill while enticing Missouri businesses with talk of Texas’s lack of a state income tax and limited regulation of business. In a response, Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander wrote to Perry advising him that “instead of launching a wholesale public relations effort,” he should “spend time asking Texas business owners if there’s anything [he] can do to help their companies move forward.”

Nixon also responded to Perry with his own radio spot arguing that the Texas ads are misleading and that, in fact, Missouri has a better tax system and business climate than the Lone Star State. Nixon criticized the Missouri Chamber of Commerce for hosting Perry.

Missouri media also reacted to the Texas campaign. St. Louis radio station KTRS refused to play the Texas ads, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch produced its own version saying “Come to Texas… four million people who work [here], live in poverty….We have the lowest percentage of high-school graduates in America but we still manage to produce more toxic waste than any other state. So come to Texas and get a career in fast food….”

Good Jobs First has extensively covered the economic war among the states in several of our blog posts (for example, see Greg LeRoy’s primer for journalists) and in our  Job-Creation Shell Game report, in which one of the case studies is dedicated to Texas. In the report, we found that “interstate job moves have microscopic effect on state economies.” Specifically, under Perry’s first seven years in the office only 0.03 percent of Texas jobs base annually came from corporate relocations. We recommended that state governments should spend time and money to encourage start-ups and to support expansions in their states, not to waste money poaching jobs from each other.

Posted in Job Piracy, Missouri | Leave a Comment »

Colorado Governor Doesn’t Buy Sales Tax Giveaway

May 10, 2012

Westernaires and Color Guard in Downtown Denver opening the National Western Stock Show

Advocates of accountability and fiscal responsibility in Colorado recently achieved a major victory when Governor John Hickenlooper vetoed a controversial economic development bill.  SB 124 was designed to amend the state’s existing Regional Tourism Act, which allows Colorado’s Economic Development Commission to award portions of sales tax revenue as a subsidy to projects deemed important enough to attract out-of-state tourism dollars.  If signed by the Governor, it would have increased the number of allowable projects this year from two to six.

The bill was made all the more contentious by the fact that the Economic Development Commission is currently in possession of an application for the existing Regional Tourism subsidy from Gaylord Entertainment Co., which is constructing a massive hotel-convention center complex in Aurora, Colorado.  The complex, located close to Denver International Airport, has been criticized for its potential to leech convention center business from Denver.  Confirming these fears, the announcement by the Western Stock Show–a Denver institution for over a century–of its intent to relocate to Aurora gave the issue a public symbol in the media.  The Gaylord complex is already approved for a tax increment financing (TIF) subsidy by the city of Aurora and has applied for an additional $170 million in sales tax TIF subsidies through the state’s Regional Tourism Act.

Concerns over intra-regional competition for jobs and tax revenues was not lost on Gov. Hickenlooper, who in his veto letter stated: “the [Regional Tourism Act] does not contemplate…projects that are likely to serve only the interests of a particular community.”  The Governor’s decision also reflected his concern that politicizing subsidy-awarding process would reduce the program’s effectiveness and accountability.  “This [veto] will help ensure the state sales tax increment revenue is used appropriately, and that the EDC is awarding projects that will in fact drive tourism and economic development…we want to ensure that the RTA process remains competitive, resulting in the most ‘unique’ and ‘extraordinary’ projects being approved,” he wrote.

TIF subsidies derived from property tax are used liberally in Colorado by local governments, but the use of sales tax revenues as a subsidy has been restricted thus far.  Recent years have brought multiple ill-informed efforts to deregulate and loosen rules on the TIF-ing of sales tax.  Many of these proposed tax giveaways have been beaten back by a coalition of groups led by the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, which successfully defeated a number of wasteful business tax credit and subsidy bills this session.

Congratulations to our allies on their hard-earned victory!

Posted in Corporate relocations, Economic Recovery, Hidden Taxpayer Costs, Job Piracy, Jobs, Sales Tax, Sprawl, Subsidies, Tax Increment Financing | 3 Comments »

Diebold Pushes Ohio Down the “PIT”

April 24, 2012

The recent announcement that Diebold, Inc. would be laying off hundreds of employees from its Ohio headquarters despite having received massive job retention subsidies designed by the state specifically for its benefit came as little surprise.  (We’ve seen it before with Sears, Dell, Boeing, ad naseum.)  The same day, Good Jobs First released “Paying Taxes to the Boss” a report in which we describe the disquieting economic development practice of states allowing employees’ personal income taxes (PIT) to be leveraged as corporate job subsidies.

Among the 22 programs we analyzed in our report is Ohio’s Job Retention Tax Credit (JRTC), which underwent controversial changes last year under the Kasich administration.  At that time, both American Greetings and Diebold were considering relocating their corporate headquarters out of the state.  In response to this job blackmail, Ohio legislators tweaked the JRTC rules to make the credit refundable for companies with a written offer of subsidies from another state.

In the end, Diebold signed a $55 million subsidy agreement (including $30 million in JRTCs) with the state in exchange for a promise to retain 1,500 workers and construct a new headquarters facility.  The catch?  Diebold employed 1,900 people in Ohio at the time the subsidy agreement was finalized.  One year ago our prescient friends at Plunderbund correctly predicted what would come next – the state would be subsidizing Diebold while the company slashed its workforce.  Last Thursday the company announced its intent to move 200 jobs to India, bringing its total state employment down to approximately 1,550 workers.

Diebold’s reasoning for seeking job subsidies from other states is a perfect example of how PIT-based programs accelerate the race to the bottom.  The company claimed it was unable to compete after its chief rival, NCR Corp. relocated to Georgia with the assistance of the state’s Mega Project Tax Credit, yet another PIT subsidy spending program.  (For descriptions of Georgia’s many personal income tax diversion subsidies, see “Paying Taxes to the Boss.”)

The use of workers’ personal income taxes as corporate giveaways fuels already rampant interstate job piracy.  PIT diversions negate the benefits that economic development projects should have on diminishing state tax revenues.  At this rate, it’s not even helping retain jobs in Ohio.  The Diebold situation is proof of that.  Lawmakers should not need more evidence that this is failed economic development policy.

Unfortunately, its failure to generate real economic development hasn’t stopped more states from adopting this foolhardy practice.  Last year Oregon created the Business Retention and Expansion Program, a subsidy that will allow recipient businesses to receive the taxes of workers as forgiveable loans.

Posted in Clawbacks, Corporate relocations, Job Blackmail, Job Piracy, Jobs, Subsidies | 1 Comment »

Colorado Stock Show Wants Bucks to Sprawl

September 1, 2011

The location of the future Gaylord convention center complex.

The already controversial proposal to construct a massively subsidized convention center complex outside Denver has become even more divisive following an announcement by the city’s long-running National Western Stock Show that it was considering relocating to the site.

The new hotel-convention center complex in Aurora County, currently under development by Gaylord Hotels, is located near the Denver International Airport.   It is receiving up to $300 million in development subsidies via tax increment revenues from Aurora, whose City Council just approved a blight designation for the 125-acre site, now completely vacant land.  The company has also applied for a raft of state subsidies that include $170 million in sales tax rebates over a 30-year period.

Concerns that the 1,500-room complex will leach convention center and hotel business and tax revenues away from Denver are turning out to be well-founded in light of the National Western Stock Show’s announcement that it is considering a site adjacent to the new development for its annual events.  The show, which is celebrating its 106th anniversary this January, is considered a Denver institution.  (Its Centennial celebration drew 727,000 people.)   Denver voters will need to approve $150 million in general obligation bonds to finance the show’s move to Aurora.  Complicating matters further is the fact that the show benefited from $30 million worth of voter approved bonds in 1989 to upgrade its current facilities at the Denver Union Stockyards.  Under the terms of that contract, the organization is required to stay at its current address in Denver until 2040.

The stock show’s announcement has roused a series of accusations from Denver electeds that the organization is in breach of its existing bond contract.  The contract stipulated that the stock show must maintain the upkeep of its facilities, which have fallen into disrepair according to city council members.   The stock show was additionally required to submit annual reports to the city.  Stock show officials state that these were submitted annually to the city’s Theatres and Arenas Department, but this has not stopped City Auditor Dennis Gallagher from accusing the organization of failing to provide his office with financial reports.

Gallagher recently released a statement lambasting the organization:  “I refuse to see our city, our downtown business, our convention center, our historical heritage and the welfare of Denver taxpayers sold down the river because of over-arching greed.”  Other officials have reacted in kind.  City Council President Chris Nevitt accused the show of “fail[ing] to live up to [its] end of the bargain.”  The heart of the issue was best expressed by Aurora resident Shirley Ney:  “As I look at this land out there, I do not consider this land as blighted,” she said. “I think it’s very valuable land … valuable agricultural land is being eaten up by urban sprawl across this country. This proposal adds to that sprawl.”

Sadly, the wisdom of this sentiment may be lost on the National Western Stock Show, which represents an entire industry dependent on agricultural land.  The problem of subsidizing the development of greenfields is twofold.  It exacerbates the problem of sprawling growth and its associated regional costs, while simultaneously providing an unnecessary financial incentive for businesses to withdraw from the urban core.  A stampede of Denver’s urban businesses to Aurora may become unavoidable when such extravagant development subsidies are involved.

Posted in Corporate relocations, Hidden Taxpayer Costs, Job Piracy, Sales Tax, Smart Growth, Sprawl, Stadiums, Subsidies, Tax Increment Financing | Leave a Comment »

K.C. Business Leaders Demand Cease-Fire on Wasteful Job Poaching

April 15, 2011

In an incredibly rapid private-sector response to our April Fool’s Day gag about that wonderful 50-state jobs truce, 17 prominent Kansas City-area business executives issued a letter this week urging the governors of Missouri and Kansas to stop offering subsidies to companies that are jumping the state line to create “new” jobs (no kidding!)

According to the Kansas City Star, the letter was not initiated by the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. A spokesperson for Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback basically said that state would press on. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is currently trying to convince AMC Entertainment not to jump the state line.

The paper also reported that the job-poaching wars have gotten worse since Kansas enacted a subsidy that allows employers to keep the personal income taxes of their employees (yes, you read that right), but then Kansas reportedly did that to defend itself against a similar Missouri giveaway…

Aside from the K.C. business leaders naïvely referring to their “unique bi-state community” (they’ve apparently not heard about New Jersey and Connecticut pirating New York City, or various Western states plundering Southern California, or northwest Indiana raiding Chicago, or [insert your favorite border job-war here], the letter is a lucid statement of the problem (if not a real solution). I especially like their point: “The losers are the taxpayers who must provide services to those who are not paying for them.”

And contrary to the tone of a similarly naïve piece about Kansas City-area job wars that recently ran in the New York Times, there is hardly anything new about this problem. Indeed, some people would date it to the 1937 birth in New York City of the Fantus Factory Locating Service, the grand-daddy of the secretive, powerful site location consulting industry.

Read this letter!

Apr. 11, 2011

Letter from KC area business leaders to Missouri, Kansas governors on ‘economic border war’

This letter to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon was signed by 17 of the area’s top business executives: David Beaham of Faultless Starch/Bon Ami; Michael J. Chesser of Great Plains Energy; Ellen Z. Darling of Zimmer Real Estate Services; Peter J. deSilva of UMB Bank; David Gentile of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City; Greg M. Graves of Burns & McDonnell; Donald J. Hall Jr. of Hallmark Cards; Michael R. Haverty of Kansas City Southern; Daniel R. Hesse of Sprint Nextel; L. Patrick James of Quest Diagnostics; A. Drue Jennings, formerly of Kansas City Power & Light; Mark R. Jorgenson of U.S. Bank; Jonathan Kemper of Commerce Bank; Thomas A. McDonnell of DST Systems; Michael Merriman of Americo Life; Robert D. Regnier of Bank of Blue Valley; and Kent W. Sunderland of Ash Grove Cement.

Dear Governor Brownback and Governor Nixon:

The Kansas City community is experiencing an economic border war. State incentives are being used to lure businesses back and forth across the state line with no net economic gain to the community as a whole and a resulting erosion of the area’s tax base. We are asking that you direct your Departments of Commerce to develop parallel legislation to reduce this unproductive use of tax incentives. While your departments work on this legislation, we ask that you both mutually agree to a bilateral halt to the issuance of incentives for business relocations between the two states within the Greater Kansas City area. We recognize that previously offered commitments should be honored and retention efforts and job training efforts should go forward. Let us give you more detail.

Both states offer competitive incentives for attracting new businesses. We support these incentives. We know they are necessary to compete with other states. We believe these incentives were intended to attract businesses and new jobs from outside the state or region. However, because of our unique bi-state community, too often these incentives are being used to shuffle existing business back and forth across the state line with no net economic benefit or new jobs to the community as a whole. At a time of severe fiscal constraint the effect to the states is that one state loses tax revenue, while the other forgives it. The states are being pitted against each other and the only real winner is the business who is “incentive shopping” to reduce costs. The losers are the taxpayers who must provide services to those who are not paying for them.

There are companies taking out short-term leases in hopes of taking advantage of the incentives more than once. This shuffle is a two-way street as one state lures businesses and the other responds in kind. Neither state will benefit as the stakes in this “economic arms race” continue to escalate, and we squander available tax incentives by fighting amongst ourselves.

Further, the effect of this economic border war is not only erosion of the tax base but a decrease in property values, and the chilling of community relationships on other important metropolitan issues.
We applaud an aggressive economic development effort by both states. However, we should measure success by new businesses and jobs from outside this area and the state, not from across the street. We need to compete with others … not each other.

We believe the directors of the Department of Commerce should examine the definition of “new jobs” for the granting of incentives. “New jobs” should be redefined to exclude jobs attracted to the states from counties bordering the state line in the Greater Kansas City SMSA and counties contiguous to those counties.

Greater Kansas City is unique in having a community equally divided between two states. Our community is interdependent. To compete we must cooperate. The use of these incentives is vital to attract new businesses to our region. We can’t grow this community if we’re using our incentives to steal from each other instead of attracting real new economic growth.

We ask that each state examine how incentives can be better used to grow our economy, and while that is being done, declare a moratorium on the use of incentives for relocations between states within the Greater Kansas City area. We do encourage continuing programs for job retention and job training that advance or maintain economic activity.

Thank you for your consideration.

Posted in Hidden Taxpayer Costs, Job Piracy, Jobs, New York, Site Location Consultants, Sprawl, Subsidies, Taxes | 4 Comments »

Stung by Shutdowns, Massachusetts Debates Reforms

April 12, 2011

Recent job loss events in Massachusetts, though unfortunate for the state and its workers, may prompt passage of strong economic development accountability and clawback legislation that would apply to all economic development subsidies statewide.   Announcements by Evergreen Solar and Fidelity Investments – both major recipients of economic development subsidies – that the companies would be moving large numbers of jobs out of state have frustrated development officials, lawmakers and residents alike.

Evergreen Solar announced in January that it would shutter its Devens manufacturing facility and send over 800 jobs to China, despite the $58 million in job creation and development subsidies it received from the state.  Fidelity’s March announcement that it would be relocating approximately 1,100 jobs to two neighboring states from its Marlborough facility also came as an insult to the state; in the 1990s – at Fidelity’s urging and great cost to the state – Massachusetts altered its state tax code to apply single sales factor (SSF) corporate income tax calculation to mutual fund firms.  Weak accountability standards and a lack of safeguards in the state’s subsidy programs mean that Massachusetts will be able to recoup very little from Evergreen and nothing from Fidelity of the subsidies they received to create and maintain jobs in the state.

Executives from both companies were questioned by lawmakers last week about their acceptance of job subsidies and subsequent decisions to move jobs out of Massachusetts.  Evergreen Solar CEO, Michael El-Hillow, stated during the hearing that the company would not be repaying the $21 million it received as direct cash grants and tax credits from the state.  Fidelity’s major economic development subsidy, provided in the form of reduced corporate income tax responsibility through the SSF calculation, is impossible to recapture.  However, even some lawmakers who voted for the passage of SSF are now questioning its value to the state’s economic development efforts.  During the hearing Senator Mark Montigny, chairman of the Senate Post Audit and Oversight Committee, stated that he expected SSF “not to continue in perpetuity with no oversight” or accountability.

Prompted by these revelations,  the Massachusetts State Auditor issued a preliminary review of business tax expenditures this week.  She found that of 91 business tax expenditures, only 8 include a sunset clause, just 10 contain clawback provisions, and only 19 have public disclosure or accountability reporting requirements.  (Program sunsets, clawback provisions, and public disclosure are among the most basic and most critical aspects of key subsidy reforms supported by Good Jobs First.)   Massachusetts passed its first public disclosure law last year, which covers only the recipients of refundable or transferable tax credits.

This law, though a good first step towards strong public disclosure, is narrow and incomplete compared to other states’ disclosure practices.  It would be leapfrogged by S153/H2565: An Act to Promote Efficiency and Transparency in Economic Development, legislation currently being examined by the Joint Committee on Revenue.  Over 50 legislators, including primary sponsor Sen. Jamie Eldridge, are co-sponsoring the omnibus economic development reform bill.  Among its many provisions are the following major subsidy reforms:

  • Transparency, including spending transparency via a Unified Development Budget
  • Enhanced online disclosure of job creation and performance monitoring
  • Mandatory clawback provisions; and
  • Job quality standards

If enacted, the bill would protect Massachusetts’ future investments in economic development and ensure that companies can no longer take taxpayers’ money and run.

Posted in Clawbacks, Disclosure, Job Piracy, Job Quality Standards, Jobs, Single Sales Factor, Subsidies | Leave a Comment »

States and Cities Finally Declare Jobs Truce

April 1, 2011

For Immediate Release April 1, 2011; Contact: Greg LeRoy 202-232-1616 x 211

Good Jobs First today announced a comprehensive treaty agreement among the nation’s leading associations of public officials to end the “economic war among the states” and the far more common “economic war among the suburbs” and finally direct job-creation subsidies where they are needed most.

“I applaud the National Governors Association, the National League of Cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the International Economic Development Council, the Council of Development Finance Agencies, and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board for this stunning breakthrough,” said Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First. “America’s public officials are finally realizing that they are not each other’s enemies, and that corporate tax dodging, off-shore job flight, and unsustainable sprawling land use are the real issues.”

To deliver on the 50 states plus-D.C. cease-fire, all of the governors have agreed to sponsor legislation that would prohibit the use of state economic development funds to subsidize interstate job flight. The same bills will also prohibit the use of state or local job subsidies to relocate jobs within a state. To end the “prisoners’ dilemma” game, the states have entered a compact to call each other and tattle on companies seeking to play states against each other. The new state laws will require mayors to do the same within a state.

“We know we can’t use federal funds to drag jobs across state lines,” said one Midwestern governor who requested anonymity. “But we’ve always used state and local dollars for interstate job piracy and of course federal money is often fungible. We have finally seen the light: state-eat-state is a futile net-loss game and a distraction from globalization.”

Getting back to basics, the new laws will allocate deals to communities based on how badly they have suffered job loss as recorded under the federal WARN Act on plant closings and mass layoffs.

To make development programs more transparent and encourage taxpayer engagement, the governors and big-city mayors also agreed to enact uniform legislation mandating that every deal be disclosed online, with reporting standards based on Good Jobs First’s recent study Show Us the Subsidies. Mimicking the Recovery Board’s new iPhone app for federal stimulus projects, each state will also mandate that all smart phones come installed with an app for detecting nearby economic development dollars via GPS.

Guided by new rules issued by GASB, each state will publish a Unified Development Budget annually, detailing all forms of spending for jobs, especially tax breaks, which have never been uniformly reported. The rules include a requirement that states project revenues lost to each tax break program for the next 10 years. “We are very keen to see these new Unified Development Budgets,” said a credit-rating agency official on background. “We suspect that some states have been hiding huge tax-break liabilities. Now we will be able to compare apples to apples and whack states that generate bogus forecasts.”

Money-back guarantee clawbacks will also be attached to every program, and every tax break subsidy will be sunsetted every three years and not eligible for renewal unless a performance audit determines it is effective. “We are embarrassed that more than 20 years after clawbacks became a common safeguard, some states are still getting ripped off by runaway shops,” said a New England governor who asked his name be withheld.

In addition to locating deals where plant closings have been concentrated, the new laws will use other rules to explicitly address poverty and reduce greenhouse gas emissions: for deals in metro areas with public transportation systems, the new state laws will require that subsidized jobs be accessible via mass transit (for carless workers). To get employers to act in their own economic self-interest (and the environment’s), the new laws will also require that all subsidized buildings be built or retrofitted to LEED standards or equivalent green building efficiency.

Job Quality Standards will be attached to every program, requiring subsidized companies to pay wages at least as good as the market, i.e., the wages for that industry in that labor market, with a living-wage floor, plus health care.

Site location consultants will be registered and regulated as lobbyists under the new state laws, making commissions to them illegal. The states with film production tax credits will deny them to G, PG and PG-13 movies that include smoking.

To plug corporate tax loopholes and shore up state revenues, the states with Single Sales Factor will repeal it. The states that lack combined reporting will enact it. And the states with the sales tax “vendor discount” will repeal it.

Finally, the new state laws will shield public education from property tax abatements and tax increment financing (TIF). The school share of property taxes will no longer be eligible for abatement or TIF diversions. “We finally realized that K-12 is our best economic development investment,” said a big-city mayor. “It was nuts that we allowed abatements and TIF to undermine our economic foundation.”

Indeed, the law will go further: school boards will take control of abatement and TIF decisions now made by city and county boards. School boards will determine whether funding for non-education purposes is abated or TIFed. “They’ve played with our money for decades,” said one state’s school board association president. “It’s payback time.”

“Liberated by these safeguards, America’s leaders will now be free to focus on the things that really matter in economic development,” said LeRoy, author of The Great American Jobs Scam. “Now we can all focus on skills, infrastructure, clusters, innovation—and fair trade—to restore the nation’s ailing economy.”

Editor’s note: Happy April Fool’s Day!

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