This effects everyone who pays state or local taxes- please read. It's time to cut out welfare. . . for corporations, billionaire owned sportsball franchises and studio financed blockbuster films. You have probably never heard of G. Brint Ryan, but his job is to get as many tax dollars into the hands of corporations as he possibly can. He's very good at his job too, even going so far as to suing his own clients for lost income he could have earned had they gone after incentives that for whatever reason they decided not to pursue.
All of these for profit endeavours are able to make such outrageous deals because no governor wants be the one who ’lost jobs’ or ‘didn’t bring jobs.’ It’s come a long way since a few tax breaks would do the trick. With every state willing to give up tax revenues for jobs the really competitive states had to sweeten the pot a little more. Soon companies wanted free land for their building sites, and they got it. The next logical step was to have infrastructure brought to their sites free of charge. So roads, power grids, sewer systems, and emergency services began to be provided at the tax payers expense. Not enough to sate corporate greed, now they demand free buildings and of course moving expenses. With everything provided, all that was left was outright extortion demanding cash payments, under threat of moving elsewhere, pitting states against each other in bidding wars to see who can sell out their taxpaying middle class the fastest.
Since most of these companies don’t have to pay taxes, they don’t need to report earnings making it almost impossible to tell exactly what states are giving up. In some cases it is estimated that states are giving up $100,000 in tax revenue per job created that only pays workers between $20 - $40,000. Taxpayers are having to buy their own jobs. These corporate windfalls never make it down to the employees who live in the states that pay for them, they are kept at the top for executives and investors. States are paying more per job than the jobs could possibly create in tax revenue, it would be cheaper to pay workers to stay at home. If you tried to blackmail a state like this you would probably go to jail. They can’t tax the poor, they have nothing. Tax the rich and their corporations and they will simply move, so no going there. That just leaves the working class to pay the taxes for everyone,
Sportsball franchises are another source of usury against the state. The Charlotte city council failed to get General assembly support to raise taxes to help finance renovations at Panther's Bank of America stadium. But fear not, they will still get millions in tax revenues for the upgrades. As usual, they claim the money is needed to keep the team from relocating. Which is a lie, The Panthers aren't going anywhere, they couldn't get the kind of loyal fan support they enjoy here. Bank of America's name is scrawled all over the stadium, so let them pay for it.
What really rips me is that people will complain loudly about the poor getting a sustenance from the government yet it seems that you can hardly find a anyone who is outraged that billionaire owned businesses and sportsball teams get huge sums of our tax dollars. I would rather buy every poor family in the state a brand new Mercedes Benz than give one dime to these sportsball teams or owners. They are effectively private clubs for the enjoyment of the upper middle and rich classes, priced out of reach of average families. To take a family of four to one of these sportsball competitions costs about as much as a three day weekend at a local beach, making it impractical for a few hours entertainment. Even then God forbid it isn't a sell-out because if it isn't, the game is blacked out from television –the most insulting part of it all, preventing them from even seeing an event that they are forced to subsidize.
Movie studios have jumped on this American bandwagon of cash. New York City paid large sums of money to the makers of “Wall Street 2”. Even though there was no chance of them going anywhere else. I mean really, are going to film a movie about Wall Street in Toronto? I don’t think so. There is no ‘trickle down here either. Extra money is considered just that –extra. It is kept by the studios, producers, and actors, nothing goes to the stagehands, electricians, caterers or wardrobe people.
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