Middle Class Political Economist

18/02/2023

Are Economic Development Incentives “Pay to Play” with Campaign Cash? - Good Jobs First

22/12/2022

Here's my latest post on the Good Jobs First blog, covering Nevada's pretty good subsidy transparency.

Nevada recently approved a $105.6 million subsidy to Redwood Materials, Inc., for an electric vehicle battery materials facility. The project application offered more transparency than many.

30/11/2022

Economic inequality has been a growing problem in the United States for decades. Some of the big causes are obvious: The decline of unions; the sluggish growth of the minimum wage; regressive tax law changes; greater tax shenanigans, both legal and illegal, by the wealthy and multinational corporati...

26/08/2022

My new blog post on the Good Jobs First blog highlights how academic users of GJF's Subsidy Tracker database show the connection between subsidies and inequality.

The voluminous data produced by Good Jobs First over 24 years has aided the research of hundreds of academics, whose work has generated scores of academic papers* using our Subsidy Tracker, Violation Tracker, or both. Today we launch a new series of blog posts to highlight some of this work about su...

03/08/2022

Kansas has given us an amazing story of economic development malpractice. The state made a secret deal to give Panasonic $829 million in subsidies to build a battery plant there. Although a $4 billion plant with 4,000 jobs is projected, the deal does not require any jobs to be created, nor does it include wage standards for the jobs. Wait, what? A secret deal with no taxpayer protections at all. Via Good Jobs First:

“My jaw is dropping that there aren’t wage and labor standards. That is economic development 101,” said a professor at the University of Texas-Austin who studies economic development incentives.

26/05/2022

Good Jobs First is looking for a new team member!

Today I have a guest post from my colleague Arlene Martinez, Deputy Executive Director and Communications Director of Good Jobs First. A...

19/05/2022

My analysis of the South Carolina school district losses at Middle Class Political Economist. https://www.middleclasspoliticaleconomist.com/2022/05/new-study-shows-south-carolina-schools.html

14/05/2022

New Good Jobs First study shows South Carolina schools lose more than any state in the Union.

South Carolina’s public schools reported $534 million in revenues lost to corporate tax abatements in FY 2021, an increase of 65% compared to just four years earlier. In the five years such reporting has been required, South Carolina schools have lost a total of $2.2 billion.