Center for Economic Accountability
@AccountableEcon
Transparency, accountability and market-based reform of state & local economic development programs across America. Pay for your own damn stadium.
Your state government’s economic development strategy relies on the argument that politicians, bureaucrats and lobbyists are getting together behind closed doors to decide which corporations get millions or even billions of tax dollars, but they’re doing that for YOUR benefit.
Kentucky taxpayers could be subsidizing data centers twice: first, to build and equip them, and then, in the former of higher energy bills to satisfy their almost insatiable energy demand, @johnmoz writes. courier-journal.com/story/opinion/…
The price tag to Michigan's taxpayers for this plant was reportedly going to be ~$22 billion. That's more than the entire state's annual General Fund budget, or more than an entire year's worth of the School Aid Fund. How did anyone think this is a good idea?
Michigan loses massive semiconductor plant. Whitmer blames ‘national economic turmoil’ bit.ly/44BgVAF
👉Corporate welfare isn't socially responsible👈 That's the main point of a new report from @RichardMorrison and myself published today by @ceidotorg. In it, we propose a new way to think about interactions between governments & businesses in the name of "economic development."
New York City's economic development programs ($100 million in avgas sales tax exemptions for airlines?) are a textbook example of MLK's line about "socialism for the rich, and rugged free-market capitalism for the poor."
Even more specifically, we'd suggest @ZohranKMamdani take a close look at @NYCFinance's annual report on tax expenditures, which is chock-full of details on where the corporate welfare is flowing in NYC: nyc.gov/assets/finance…
The thing to understand about this scandal is that the @MEDC is operating as designed. Michigan's politicians and 'business leaders' have created a system where they and their cronies are the ones writing the checks, cashing the checks & doing oversight, all at taxpayer expense.
NEW: Top lawyer at the Michigan Economic Development Corp. "acted to conceal evidence" in Beydoun-related raid, @dananessel's investigators alleged detroitnews.com/story/news/pol… via @CraigDMauger @DNBethLeBlanc @detroitnews
When it comes to Michigan's unemployment numbers, never forget that every year we're among the three or four most aggressive states in handing out massive corporate welfare subsidies in the name of 'job creation' that somehow never manages to show up.
For the 3rd month in a row, Michigan had the second worst unemployment rate in the nation in May. detroitnews.com/story/business…
Missouri's politicians have essentially decided that pro sports teams should not have to pay taxes. fieldofschemes.com/2025/06/05/227…
Great news in Nevada, where a terrible film subsidy proposal died in rewrites.
AB238 DIED 💀 No billion dollar tax breaks for Hollywood. Nevadans said NO to handing over our tax dollars for studio freebies. Stick around. We’re breaking down the rest of Nevada’s 83rd legislative outcomes next. #DontHollywoodMyNevada #nvleg
First-pitch crowd for Rockies-Marlins. Tell us again about your stadium’s massive economic impact.
NFL teams make money by having the public pay for large portions of their stadiums then selling tickets/naming rights/PSLs/merch/TV contracts and now building developments where they can sell more with accompanying tax captures and property tax breaks.
We didn’t hire a consultant to “help with stadium planning.” We hired a consultant to help us understand how a major corporate entity w/opaque business practices makes their $$ so that the state of IL could go to the bargaining table in the best possible negotiating position.