Anyone who stays awake for a few hours a day anywhere in the US of A knows just how bullshit these tax breaks for jobs programs are. They just don't produce anywhere near the jobs they claim, but the owners of the businesses keep raking in taxpayer money. This is one reason why we need to punish these companies, not continue to reward them with tax breaks. Here's a look at what happened in Massachusetts. & remember, this has nothing to do with liberal politics, but everything to do with businesses & corporations completely reneging on the social contract implied in their getting the tax breaks.
In exchange for more than $2 million in state and local tax breaks, the Canadian telecommunications equipment maker promised a decade ago to expand its campus in Billerica, keeping 2,200 existing jobs and adding as many as 800 more. But instead of adding jobs, the struggling company has steadily slashed its operations for years.
Today, it has 145 employees. It also still has those tax breaks, set to continue through 2014.
*****Other projects that sounded great on paper, such as the Nortel expansion plan, have fallen far short of what was promised. A Fall River rubber parts maker pledged to create 20 jobs, but cut 36 instead. A manufacturer in Orange promised to add five full-time jobs, but cut a half-dozen or more instead. But even when jobs are cut, the state often takes years to end a tax break, if it takes any action at all. And officials could not name a case in which they asked a company to repay subsidies already pocketed
I'm not opposed to giving employers tax breaks in order to provide employment, but I am opposed to giving away tax payer money when there is not accountability or mechanism in which to reclaim this money. My emphases.
1 comment:
No need to go so far as Mass. to find this kind of abuse - we have had similar (on a much smaller scale) in the hood.
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