The Great American Jobs Scam Corporate Tax Dodging and the Myth of Job Creation

by LeRoy, Greg

• ISBN13: 9781576753156
• ISBN10: 1576753158
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-07-10
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Summary

In an expose of "job blackmail," The Great American Jobs Scam shows how corporations corrupt public policies and weaken the economy by harming the public goods. Using real-life examples, the book names corporations including Enron and Wal-Mart, reveals shadowy players and dissects government mumbo-jumbo with plain talk.

Author Biography

Greg LeRoy has been dubbed “the leading national watchdog of state and local economic development subsidies” and “God’s witness to corporate welfare.” For more than 20 years, mostly from Chicago, he has been writing, consulting, and training for unions, community groups, environmental and smart growth advocates, labor-management committees, professional associations of development officials, elected officials, journalists, and state and local government agencies. His 1994 book, No More Candy Store: States and Cities Making Job Subsidies Accountable, was the first compilation of economic development safeguards such as clawbacks and job quality standards. Upon winning the Stern Family Fund’s 1998 Public Interest Pioneer Award, he founded Good Jobs First (http://www.goodjobsfirst.org). Based in Washington, DC, Good Jobs First promotes corporate and government accountability in economic development and smart growth for working families. It also includes Good Jobs New York, the Corporate Research Project, and Good Jobs Illinois. Greg holds degrees in journalism and U.S. history.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Introduction: Money for Nothing	1	(8)
One: The Tax Dodgers Are Coming! The Tax Dodgers Are Coming!	9	(38)
Two: Site Location 101: How Companies Decide Where to Expand or Relocate	47	(21)
Three: Fantus and the Rise of the Economic War Among the States	68	(24)
Four: "Single Sales Factor" and the Corporate Assault on the Income Tax	92	(23)
Five: Property Tax Abatements and Your Local School	115	(13)
Six: Subsidizing Sprawl, Subsidizing Wal-Mart	128	(29)
Seven: Loot, Loot, Loot for the Home Team	157	(11)
Eight: Shifting the Burden	168	(17)
Nine: Building a New Consensus for Reform	185	(22)
Acknowledgments	207	(6)
Notes	213	(46)
Index	259	(29)
About the Author	288