re: #269 lawhawk

Boeing moved to Chicago.

States and cities will push tax incentives - basically handouts to businesses to come and stay. They’re competing with each other to get these companies to stick around, and all they end up doing is eroding the tax bases of the cities and states. Even the legislatures in many states are realizing that these kinds of economic development incentives/credits have to be reformed. They’ve moved to make sure that the businesses are creating long term jobs with clawback provisions if they fail to deliver.

Heck, even Newark is poaching jobs from nearby towns and New York City. Panasonic moved its headquarters from Secaucus. Prudential moved essentially across the street to a new building, and the city/state gave them a huge tax break to do so - to avoid them moving elsewhere, even though there was little chance of that happening.

The other thing to watch for in terms of this “deals” is where the local politicians are *really* benefiting; e.g. do they have connections and such with the companies that will rake in the short-term profits in the construction and road work associated with a company moving into town (or a new stadium deal.)

And note that Atlanta did not give the Braves ownership a cushy deal - so they moved just outside the city. The flip-side is having friends in Minnesota watching the Vikings ownership getting a sweetheart deal despite fairly heavy citizenry opposition.

And Pittsburgh did stadium deals on county bonds back in the late 90s despite serious opposition and the failure of a referrendum on the initial funding deal that also included an increased sales tax (1/2% for ten counties. After the defeat the county commissioners and the mayor simply rolled out “Plan B” and stuck the taxpayers anyways.