By Greg LeRoy, Thomas Cafcas, Leigh McIlvaine, Kasia Tarczynska, and Philip Mattera
The moves by some states to outsource economic development functions to “public-private partnerships” have, by and large, become costly failures characterized by misuse of taxpayer funds, conflicts of interest, excessive executive pay and bonuses, questionable subsidy awards, exaggerated job-creation claims, lack of public disclosure of key records, and resistance to basic oversight.