corporate subsidies Archives

Corporations

The High Cost of Cheap Corporate Utilities

Discounted energy is a backdoor subsidy

March 30, 2023 • by Pat Garofalo

Make any utility discounts for “economic development” transparent and debatable before public bodies, if they have to be allowed at all...

The High Cost of Cheap Corporate Utilities

Corporations

The “Transferable” Subsidy Scam

Meet a big, under-the-radar problem

October 31, 2022 • by Pat Garofalo

It’s a mess, is what I’m saying. But making a corporate subsidy transferable is an easy thing to do under the radar, without folks knowing what it means or realizing what their state is in for when such a policy is actually implemented. ...

Economy

2022 State Legislative Preview

Nine things I’m watching at the statehouse level this year

January 24, 2022 • by Pat Garofalo

Legislative sessions in most states either started recently or will start soon, so it seems like a good time to take stock of what’s happening at the state level and what I’ll be paying attention to in the coming year when it comes to corporate subsidies and the larger effort to ...

Politics

Bass Pro Blocked from Reeling in More Power

Merger between Sportsman’s and Great Outdoors Group hits FTC snag

December 10, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

On December 2, 2021, there was some under-the-radar good news for local communities and consumers: The Great Outdoors Group and Sportsman’s Warehouse called off a proposed merger, after scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general in several states, including Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, and California. Great Outdoors Group ...

Bass Pro Blocked from Reeling in More Power

Technology

Facebook’s Data Center Fluff

A snazzy new public relations push can’t cover up the truth

September 27, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

Last week Facebook rolled out a new website dedicated to the awesomeness of its data centers, the large facilities it builds to house all the data it collects from you, me, and everyone else it surveils on the internet. I’m not kidding. Facebook built and published an entire website extolling the virtues of ...

Politics

How Corporate Subsidies Sink Small Businesses

The Alabama insurance market shows how tax breaks benefit dominant corporations

September 20, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

One of the more pernicious effects of states chucking huge sums of money at dominant corporations is that the lawmakers doing so are harming their own local businesses. Smaller outlets that already face an array of challenges when it comes to competing with the big guys have to just sit ...