Economy Archives - Page 8 of 18

Economy

Parking Meter Monopoly Malfeasance

Chicago reveals the perils of non-competes in infrastructure projects.

April 27, 2022 • by Pat Garofalo

A group of Chicago drivers earlier this month filed an appeal in an antitrust lawsuit they brought, which alleges that a deal the city made to privatize its parking meters for 75 years constitutes an illegal monopoly. They want the court to give the city the power to cancel the agreement outright, ...

Corporations

Dueling Secret Deals

Kansas and Oklahoma: So many NDAs, so many corporate handouts, so little time

April 22, 2022 • by Pat Garofalo

Back in February, Kansas legislators approved a $1.2 billion corporate subsidy package for an as-yet-still unnamed corporation. Many members of the legislature signed non-disclosure agreements preventing them from divulging the proposed recipient of that taxpayer largesse. Events this week show why the corporation in question hasn’t come out from behind the curtain in ...

Corporations

The Film Tax Credit Sequel Stinks

Two thumbs down to subsidies for film and TV production

April 15, 2022 • by Pat Garofalo

There’s a new sequel coming out, and let me tell you, it is terrible. No, I’m not talking about whatever film is actually up on the silver screen at the moment, but a push in statehouses across the country to revive or create film and TV tax credit programs, one of ...

Corporations

Why Taking on Turbotax Matters

Intuit is a scourge

April 8, 2022 • by Pat Garofalo

Tax Day 2022 is almost here, so it seems like a good time to talk about one of my least favorite corporations: Intuit, the makers of Turbotax, the now ubiquitous electronic tax payment software. A couple of weeks ago, the Federal Trade Commission — which enforces federal antitrust and consumer protection ...

Corporations

Ban Secret Deals

Meet the new coalition pushing to ban NDAs in corporate subsidy deals

April 1, 2022 • by Pat Garofalo

As regular readers know, I am a pretty big critic of the use of non-disclosure agreements in economic development deals. These agreements — signed by governors, members of state legislatures, mayors, city council members, and other local leaders — prevent public officials from disclosing anything about a corporate subsidy deal ...

Corporations

Subsidized By Taxpayers, Stealing From Workers

Wage thieves should get no public favors

March 28, 2022 • by Pat Garofalo

The U.S. Department of Labor earlier this month found that Seaboard Triumph Foods, a pork processor in Sioux City, Iowa, illegally stole wages from workers by not paying them for work done before and after their official shifts, including time for “set up, clean up and knife sharpening.” Seaboard was ...

Subsidized By Taxpayers, Stealing From Workers

Corporations

Amazon Extracts Billions from Communities Globally

March 21, 2022 • by Kenneth Thomas

Last month, UNI Global Union and my organization Good Jobs First released a report detailing the subsidies Amazon.com, Inc. has gotten around the world. I was the lead author of the study. Months of research by our multi-lingual team found that the company has received at least $4.7 billion....

Amazon Extracts Billions from Communities Globally

Corporations

Walmart Kills Wages

State and federal lawmakers are focusing more on corporate power in labor markets

March 18, 2022 • by Pat Garofalo

The U.S. Treasury Department released a report last week looking at the power dominant firms have over labor markets, or, in layperson’s terms, the power employers have over how much you are paid and what your work conditions are like. And the findings were grim: “As this report highlights, a ...

Economy

New York’s Anti-Monopoly State of Mind

How and why the Empire State took center stage in the fight against corporate power

March 9, 2022 • by Pat Garofalo

I traveled up to Albany, New York, this week to help out with the unveiling of a bill in the state legislature there that would prevent New York officials from subsidizing Amazon’s warehouse network. According to Good Jobs First, New York taxpayers have gifted Amazon with nearly $400 million in ...

Economy

Piercing Amazon’s Veil of Secrecy

A community took on a secret Amazon deal — and won

February 22, 2022 • by Pat Garofalo

Usually I write about a lot of doom and gloom here, but today, it’s time for a happy story: A community in Frederick County, Maryland, caught wind of a secret agreement that was being negotiated between local leadership and Amazon to build some Amazon Web Services data centers, and made ...

Economy

A Year of Wasted Opportunity

How America’s largest corporations profited from the American Rescue Plan Act

February 8, 2022 • by Kasia Tarczynska

In 2021, when small businesses were still closing en masse and many were unable to afford even rent, large corporations across the country got billions of dollars in tax breaks and other public support. It was a year defined by massive economic development subsidy packages. ...

Economy

The Rural Tax Credit Hustle

Beware investment firms pitching themselves as the saviors of rural America

February 2, 2022 • by Pat Garofalo

The Kentucky proposal would give credits against insurance premium taxes to corporations who provide funds to investment firms that then turn around and invest money in smaller businesses in rural Kentucky. If it seems like that’s needlessly complicated, well, it is. ...