Blogging from Baltimore

I'm in Baltimore attending a conference on economic development hosted by Good Jobs First, a research and watchdog organization that targets wasteful subsidy programs. The conference has attracted a lot of activists working towards making economic development subsidy programs something that benefit the public, as opposed to simply providing tax breaks to corporations.  I spoke this morning at a workshop about my experiences investigating subsidy programs in Western New York.

Over the next couple of days I'm going to report on what I've learned sitting in on assorted workshops. Here goes.

Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, took up the issue of subsidies to promote green jobs, sustainable development, etc. He's all for green, but doesn't see a need for more subsidies. He noted that states, on average, have about 30 subsidy programs.

Rather than additional programs, he argued that existing ones should include green criteria that must be met in order to get public assistance.

"Let's say: 'Every office building that wants a property tax abatement must go LEED,' or 'Any factory or warehouse seeking an investment tax credit must meet best-practice emissions and workplace safety standards, ' " he said.

"If rules such as these were phased in for existing recipients and required of new ones, I believe two things would happen. Most companies would move to clean up their act, creating millions of new green jobs. And a minority of companies -- the low roaders -- would refuse and start losing some tax breaks. That would be a win-win for taxpayers."

Comments

[Lydia Bezou-Hojnacki]

How did we ever fall into the trap of subsidies for anything other than food and shelter?

What a waste of tax revenue!

No one needs anything from government except what will feed and shelter them.