Commentary: Ending corporate welfare could help with budget crisis

[unhappycamper]

Commentary: Ending corporate welfare could help with budget crisis
By Mitchell Schnurman | The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Posted on Monday, June 7, 2010

If budget problems get bad enough and last long enough, maybe politicians will do something revolutionary: Stop giving taxpayer money to private companies.

Ending corporate welfare wouldn't close the funding gap for most cities, but it would represent progress — for both public finances and tax policy. Big business throws so much weight around city halls in North Texas that only a Great Reset could reverse things.

To get an idea of the bubble in government giveaways, consider the sweetheart deal that Euless created for Redi-Mix Concrete.

The city built a regional headquarters on North Main Street, spending $4.9 million for a 27,551-square-foot building on 2.2 acres. Redi-Mix occupied the space at the beginning of the year, and it pays zero rent, as long as it generates a certain level of sales tax.

It also gets a rebate for one-quarter of the local sales tax it collects -- for concrete delivered throughout the region, not just in Euless. In 2008, Euless returned $567,000 to Redi-Mix under this agreement, but that amount fell by more than half after the recession stalled the construction industry last year.

[Raspberry]

1. That means that

Redi-Mix paid over $2,000,000 in local sales taxes. Pretty nice chunk of change for the town. Also--how many jobs were generated in constructing that building? How many unemployed people got jobs working for Redi-Mix? It doesn't sound like such a bad deal for the town, or for the taxpayers.

[TexasObserver]

2. recommend

[bobbolink]

3. Excellent! WONDERFUL that the writer used "Corporate Welfare".

We need to hear that more.

Thanks for posting! :hi:

[Echo In Light]

4. K/R