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    twizzlerHamilton Nolan
    4/29/14 11:49am

    Phrases like "tax breaks" give the false impression that they're just shaving a few dollars off their tax bill. But thanks to shady crap like "tax-increment financing" these deals can mean a wealthy developer of a mall, for example, gets to not pay any property taxes for 30 years or more! That means the developer is not paying the costs associated with all that increased traffic, need for more roads, sidewalks, streetlights, water and sewer and electricity and gas lines, cops and firefighters, housing, etc. So not only does the municipality give the business a break, they assume millions of dollars in new costs to provide a cushy new home for their shiny new toy. Because who cares about what the impacts on people are when a corporation wants to move here, right? Who's more important, after all?

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      zakany001twizzler
      4/29/14 12:21pm

      Privatize the profits, foist the costs onto the public.

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      paxcincinnatustwizzler
      4/29/14 12:22pm

      A TIF isn't a waiver of impact fees on associated with more intensive use. It is a financing model that segregates the property (and/or sales, earnings) taxes for use within that predetermined district.

      Yes, there are a lot of ways this could go wrong - especially if the developer doesn't find the end users needed to pay the rents.

      However, it is a powerful tool in the economic development toolbox of local governments. For every nightmare scenario one could highlight, there more quite successes. This funding model is responsible for many of the revitalized, pedestrian-friendly downtowns we all like.

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    DoctorNineHamilton Nolan
    4/29/14 12:17pm

    So lessee….

    California isn't so great for businesses, and loses out when competing with other states like Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee for large auto manufacturers, so let's get the Feds to ban businesses moving. This is your argument?

    Are you high?

    It's not a cost to 'the public' when this happens. It's a cost to whichever state loses out on getting the businesses. So when a governor in Texas or Tennessee gives a sweet deal to the businesses, he is directly improving his state, and undercutting the state which is losing the business.

    You never hear a damn thing when a business moves to NY or Cali. But just one or two rocking competitive victories for the South, and you are all up in arms.

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      grancy3DoctorNine
      4/29/14 1:30pm

      In this story, Tennessee is losing jobs to Texas. That's one error I'd like to focus on in your post.

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      DoctorNinegrancy3
      4/29/14 1:42pm

      Actually, it's Kentucky, but I was discussing that with RevFresh. Michigan is getting some of those too. Not just Texas.

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    JohninLAHamilton Nolan
    4/29/14 11:54am

    Things like expanding Medicaid (which actually saves money!) and other "handouts" to the poor are considered, in Republican circles, kowtowing to welfare queens.

    Yet giving handouts (err, "incentives") to a company worth, as of 10 minutes ago, $170.6 billion is hailed as "smart business."

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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      BumpJohninLA
      4/29/14 12:22pm

      One is handing out free money in exchange for nothing, the other is not collecting money in exchange for economic growth

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      ShantiLaenatusJohninLA
      4/29/14 12:48pm

      Sickening but par for the course. Texas government is quite literally a reverse Robin Hood operation. They take from the poor and give to the rich. Texan's have a choice soon. Abbott is part of the same 'ol boy network from whence Rick Perry sprang. Wendy Davis isn't. All that corporate felating is paid for by you, the taxpayers of Texas. Had enough? We'll soon find out.

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    BookonBobHamilton Nolan
    4/29/14 11:43am

    He is a TEXAS patriot. Not an American one.

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      Hamilton NolanBookonBob
      4/29/14 11:46am

      Correct.

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      tsatsikiBookonBob
      4/29/14 12:43pm

      A Texas patriot who ran for President of the United States. Derpity derp.

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    Bad KevHamilton Nolan
    4/29/14 11:51am

    Am I missing something here?

    He's paying with Texas money, right?

    Texas is the state that will be benefiting from the jobs and will eventually see a return on that investment. "Texas (+4,000)"=== +4,000 jobs in Texas.

    Again, am I missing something?

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      The Other TheronBad Kev
      4/29/14 11:56am

      Yeah, but it's at the expense of other states, and is a big giveaway to a very wealthy, very successful company that does not need the money.

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      Jer'Maine MontielBad Kev
      4/29/14 12:03pm

      What the other commenter said: he's taking state money, paying off a company worth $171B to move jobs from one state to the other. So 1) If Texas is so great, why are you paying them? 2) This American "patriot" is literally taking jobs from other states. The company isn't moving on its own accord. That's a dick move. How about we try being actual job creators, and not just shuffle the ones we have around.

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    benjaminalloverHamilton Nolan
    4/29/14 11:45am

    But if we don't give welfare and tax breaks to corporations for nothing in return and apply the meekest regulations possible and let them run roughshod over the rest of us, how will we ever win the race to the bottom?

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      FUCK YOU I'M WORKING FROM HOMEbenjaminallover
      4/29/14 11:46am

      Would that I could color my star gold and festoon you with them.

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      Non Sleeping Giantbenjaminallover
      4/29/14 12:24pm

      Isn't it funny how no one thinks that giving welfare to corporations will make them NOT want to make a profit? I guess corporation are not just people, they're better people.

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    Jerry-NetherlandHamilton Nolan
    4/29/14 12:11pm

    New York is running the same scheme, with 10 year tax abatements to move your business there (I assume this ad is not running in NYS, but it runs nightly in CA):

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      crookedEJerry-Netherland
      4/29/14 1:02pm

      It does run in New York too, actually. I didn't realize they were running it elsewhere - I assumed they were trying to draw business from the NYC area to upstate cities. It is still idiotic, though. They act like tax-free zones are some groundbreaking idea to cover up the fact that they have zero actual ideas.

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      Jerry-NetherlandcrookedE
      4/29/14 1:14pm

      And the tax-free status afforded to "start-ups" is an easily circumventable construct allowing an out-of-state corporation to incorporate a subsidiary in NYS, while leaving a few people in their home office. Incidentally, Toyota is leaving 2,300 people in their Torrance, CA headquarters - it's worth noting who's staying). Per LA Times:

      "The car company will keep about 2,300 workers in California at its design studio in Newport Beach, a motor-racing division in Costa Mesa, a parts factory in Long Beach and at other facilities..."

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    Citizen-KangHamilton Nolan
    4/29/14 11:56am

    Is this what we've come to as a nation? We're willing to cannibalize our brethren for what amounts to less than nothing? The only thing this does is shift around votes and that's great for Rick Perry, but the country as a whole has to pay for his political ego trip. This is nothing more than a race to the bottom where the "winner" receives the dubious honor of being allowed to give the corporation of his choice a big, desperate, slobbery tongue bath. I'm sure Rick Perry is very proud of himself.

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      KattScratchFeverCitizen-Kang
      4/29/14 12:22pm

      Oh don't worry. The next time Texas has a hurricane or wildfire they'll be begging for financial help from their fellow Americans.

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      Citizen-KangKattScratchFever
      4/29/14 12:30pm

      I hope we won't hold all the jobs fleeing to Texas against them and provide aid quickly and efficiently (unless some politician is out to make a name for himself) because that's what family and friends do.

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    In a Mini; let them mock me as My Mini Countryman is higher than youHamilton Nolan
    4/29/14 11:43am

    REPUBLICAN CIRCLE JERK 2, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO.

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      In a Mini; let them mock me as My Mini Countryman is higher than youIn a Mini; let them mock me as My Mini Countryman is higher than you
      4/29/14 11:51am

      The Conservatrolls on Jalopnik were like "MURICA, NO LIBERAL IS GOING TO TAX US, HOO RAH!"

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    jumpinggoldfishfeverHamilton Nolan
    4/29/14 11:48am

    "Ten years of tax, regulatory, legal and educational policies have now put Texas at the top of the heap."

    Either among the bottom fifty states or the 5oths in the following things

    Health insurance coverage

    Education quality

    Healthcare quality

    Education level

    Mental healthcare

    Womens healthcare

    non minimal wage jobs

    Salaries

    Work place safety

    Discrimination laws

    Food safety

    Near the top for the following.

    poverty

    teen deaths

    teen pregnancy

    obesity

    cancer

    illiterates

    corruption

    deaths during birth

    workplace hazards

    Receiver of Federal Aid

    Welfare

    Morons

    Texas: Where corporations are people and human being are trash

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      pdxwhyjumpinggoldfishfever
      4/29/14 12:04pm

      If only I could star this 10000X !

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      jumpinggoldfishfeverpdxwhy
      4/29/14 12:04pm

      You can! Burners.... gotta love em! LOL

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