Amazon Reviews
26 of 29 people found the following review to be helpful:
Exposing Corporate Extortion of Taxpayers, July 7, 2005
By Perri Morgan
Across the country, state legislatures appropriate millions of taxpayer dollars each year on "corporate jobs incentives" under the guise of "economic development and job creation". Greg LeRoy manages to shed light on the fallacy of these programs, using real life examples to prove that "incentives" are simply corporate welfare schemes that do little more than pad the pockets of hugely profitable corporations - while providing photo ops for politicians.
As a longtime advocate for small business owners, who are responsible for the vast majority of new job creation despite their lack of eligibility for taxpayer subsidies, I have been frustrated by the ridiculous and baseless defenses used by lawmakers to justify using taxpayer dollars in this egregious manner. LeRoy narrows down a comprehensive study of the issue into an illuminating and ultimately readable treatise, wading through the many different forms that subsidies take - from outright cash hand-outs to Tax Increment Financing (TIF's) - and ultimately providing ample evidence that the "if you build it, they will come" approach is NOT responsible for new job creation in America.
This book is a public policy manual for our time; required reading for elected officials at every level who have voted - or are thinking about voting - for targeted tax subsidies. These lawmakers are creating an escalating "Economic War Between the States" at the expense of lower taxes, fair competition, and improved public services for all.
For citizens (and taxpayers), LeRoy will enlist your outrage.
For lawmakers who have voted against such disgraceful scams, he provides all the evidence needed to defend that vote in the face of a society which has been brainwashed to believe that "incentives = jobs".
Nothing could be further from the truth, and Greg LeRoy proves it.
19 of 21 people found the following review to be helpful:
An Important and Compelling Book, July 17, 2005
By Peter S. Fisher
I hope the people who really need to read this book do read it--the state legislators and local officials who have been seduced by the arguments of the "job scammers," as Greg LeRoy calls them. As an academic economist who has been researching state economic development policy for many years, I know how hard it is to get the attention of policy makers and convince them they are wasting vast sums of tax money on corporate incentives, and in the process harming, not helping, their state's long term growth. I think Greg LeRoy has written the book that can cut through the nonsense in this debate and actually make a difference. Its readable, its colorful, its compelling, yet at the same time it is based on exhaustive, careful research. Here is finally the documentation for what many of us suspected has really been going on in the "incentive wars." My advice: buy a few extra copies and send them to your state representative or city council member. Then call them up a month later and ask them how they liked it.
9 of 9 people found the following review to be helpful:
Good Material, but Too Long!, December 19, 2005
By Loyd E. Eskildson
LeRoy reports that job scams cost governments about $50 billion per year in lost revenues. The most common scams include:
1)Create a bogus competitor (another town or state) vs. wherever the company wanted to locate in the first place.
The intent is to create a "bidding war" over the freebies offered.
2)Job "blackmail" in which a company threatens to move (or locate elsewhere) unless it gets the subsidies/tax relief it wants.
Easily enhanced by overestimating the job increase - LeRoy cited examples from Connecticut in which only 9% of forecasted jobs materialized, leading to a cost of $367,910 per new job. Exaggerations are typically followed up by failure to track or publish actual results.
3)Entice a firm that pays "poverty" wages, and stick the taxpayers with hidden costs (eg. employee and family healthcare).
Wal-Mart is the most notable example.
4)Exaggerate "ripple effect" benefits - eg. the number of supplier jobs, and those created by employee spending.
(LeRoy cited an example where one city used a low multiplier to downplay jobs lost when a company left, and a high multiplier to play up the potential gain from another moving in.)
5)"Bust the union" in which the company uses Federal funding (eg.
CDBG grants from HUD) to move, and thereby break an existing union.
Obviously any and all these machinations can be combined.
Mayor Giuliani was cited as a prolific scam-"victim" - giving up $350 million in tax revenues between '94 - '01.
Small wonder N.Y. also ended up with a large deficit.
LeRoy points out that "nobody wants to be the mayor/governor who lost ______," and that fear impels leaders and legislatures to succomb.
In reality, however, taxes make up only 4-5% of location costs according to a consultant cited, and only 1.2% of total costs according to the IRS.
Similarly, convention centers are oversold (overall convention business is DECLINING - thus, new centers being built are extremely unlikely to be financially successful), and sports stadiums.
Meanwhile, LeRoy points out that a recent survey of civil engineers found that America's infrastructure needs greater funding. (My life as a truck-driver provides daily evidence of the substantial repairs and enhancements needed for our Interstates.)
The "bad news" with this book, like many others, is that to justify book printing, it ended up considerably longer than necessary - at least 2X, and probably 3X.
11 of 12 people found the following review to be helpful:
Buy copies for your state legislators, July 24, 2005
By John Metzgar
This is complicated stuff, but LeRoy walks you through it bit by bit in an entertaining way that builds both your understanding and your anger. Without a hint of cynicism, he systematically exposes $50 billion in job scamming and tells how to stop it. It's so clearly written and explained, even state legislators should be able to finally "get it."
11 of 13 people found the following review to be helpful:
A well-written book by a real expert, July 5, 2005
By Frank Mauro
As Greg LeRoy makes abundantly clear through one rich example after another, state and local governments are spending taxpayers' money with abandon in the name of "economic development" and not producing the desired results: more and better jobs. And he puts these examples into context, explaining how the estimated $50 billion a year in business subsidies has resulted in a huge shift in the nation's tax burden - from large corporations to ordinary citizens.
For over 20 years, Greg LeRoy has been on the front lines of the effort to make state and local government economic development programs smarter and more accountable. And he and the local leaders and local organizations that he has worked with in various parts of the country have had some notable successes in adding disclosure and evaluation requirements, and job quality standards, to some of these programs. Some states and localities have even adopted money-back-guarantee requirements (frequently called "clawbacks") to deal with the countless number of situations (many good examples of which are given in this book) in which firms take big subsidies from the government and then fail to deliver on their job creation and job retention promises, and sometimes even cut their workforces substantially
I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with Greg LeRoy since 1994 and I am continually amazed by his mastery of this important subject. In this book, Greg distills his vast knowledge and experience into a well-written and entertaining volume that doesn't just explain what is going on but tells us why and what we can do to change things. Anyone who wants to improve the American economy will benefit from reading this book.
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