13 Nov 2003
Corporate Welfare

Below is an expanded article from CNet on "tax incentives" offered to companies for location/relocation in a community. These kinds of under the table and behind the back dealings are what give both local governments and business a black eye - they aren't that different from and sometimes actually involve) land sharking.

With the usual IANAL cavaet, it seems to me that these kinds of arrangement are essentially "bills of attainder" in reverse - rather than punishing a specific entity, they reward it! It's pretty obvious why we wouldn't want our governments declaring certain specific people guily of crimes and punishing them by legislative fiat - isn't it equally obvious that the government shouldn't be passing laws giving certain corporation (and only certain corporations, under certain conditions) millions of taxpayer dollars for "developement"? I think so ...

Company towns: The cost of tax breaks [CNET News.com - Front Door]

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