The billions in incentive doled out by New York and Arlington exemplify a broken system It?s been called the ?hunger games,? a source of community outrage, and an illegal process that benefits the wealthy.
Amazon?s promises to change a city?s fortunes with its HQ2 contest, and, in the words of the boosterish official announcement, ?spur the creation of tens of thousands of additional jobs in the surrounding communities,? has rung hollow for many. As residents of New York City and Arlington, Virginia, begin to weigh the full impacts of landing the company?s HQ2 and HQ3, and scrutinize the tax breaks and employment promises, they may want to revisit the history of corporate subsidies.
While the public, city-versus-city race to the bottom structure may seem like a unique product of the reality-show era, it?s just the latest spin on an established tradition of local governments paying for jobs. Cities and states are hooked on incentives, spending tens of billions of dollars on them every year. ?Cities have grown up in a corporate-dominated site-selection system, where public officials are playing poker with a weak hand,? Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a Washington, D.C., policy center that promotes accountability in economic development, told Curbed. ?Their role is to wait for companies to come and knock on the door, and put as much money on the table as possible.?
How common is this practice" Cities and states, for one, seem eager to prostrate...