Pat Garofalo, Author at Public Seminar

Capitalism

How Taxpayers are Picking Up the Bill for the Destruction of Local Restaurants

Ghost Kitchens are a trend that are as spooky and scary as they sound

November 30, 2020 • by Pat Garofalo

This past summer, Kroger, one of the nation’s largest grocery store chains, received a 15-year, 75 percent sales tax exemption for setting up two new data centers in Ohio. This is the definition of unnecessary. Kroger is not exactly poverty struck – it accrued profits of more than $2 billion last year. ...

How Taxpayers are Picking Up the Bill for the Destruction of Local Restaurants

Capitalism

Big Tech May Be Closer to Home Than You Know

How digital behemoths create economically vulnerable communities — and then prey on them

October 1, 2020 • by Pat Garofalo

----- In May, 2020, the city of Gallatin, Tennessee, voted to provide nearly $20 million in tax breaks to an entity called “Project Woolhawk” that proposed building a data center in the area. Local economic development officials refused to confirm who or what was behind that name, only that it was ...

Big Tech May Be Closer to Home Than You Know

Corporations

Enjoy Your Pandemic Waterpark

A corporation deigns to let taxpayers into a previously private park they paid for

September 2, 2020 • by Pat Garofalo

Back in 2017, Nashville, Tennessee, provided real estate investment trust Ryman Hospitality with about $13.8 million in tax breaks to build a waterpark at its Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center. However, taxpayers weren’t able to access the park unless they stayed overnight at the four-star facility. The hotel limited waterpark access ...

Capitalism

Tesla’s Latest Rip-Off

June 8, 2020 • by Pat Garofalo

That’s how one resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma, reacted to the city repainting a seventy-five-foot statue of an oil driller, erected in 1966, to look like Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Tulsa is reportedly on the short list—along with Austin, Texas—for a new Tesla Cybertruck factory, so local leaders are pulling out ...

Corporations

Is the Covid-19 Small Business Loan Program a Boondoggle?

Yes…and no

April 28, 2020 • by Pat Garofalo

Some of the criticisms are totally legit. Others, though, are a bit overblown or end up misplacing the true blame for what went wrong. I’m going to try to untangle it all in seven points below: 1. What are we talking about? The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), as the major small business ...