By Arlene Martínez

January 19, 2021

I’ve seen it time and time again: A gushing press release, with quotes by local elected officials and business lobbyists, enthusiastically touting all the benefits Amazon’s presence will bring. The accompanying media write-up is often a fuller version of the release that, because of

By Good Jobs First

January 6, 2021

When it came to funding education, the CARES Act favored private and charter schools over public schools in a big way. An analysis by Good Jobs First previously revealed that private and charter schools received about six times more per school than public

This is Arlene Martínez, communications director with Good Jobs First, with a quick update on some things we’ve been up to. Let’s start with this explosive piece on Amazon that found the company’s massive Chicago-area expansion involved $741 million in taxpayer funds, largely from Black and Latino communities. 

Good Jobs First talked with education expert Dr. Kendall Deas about the role corporate incentives and subsidies play in South Carolina, which in fiscal year 2019 cost the state’s public schools $423 million – a $99 million increase in two years, according to our analysis. The findings raise a key question: do newly arriving companies that get big tax breaks pay their fair share for the public services they and their employees utilize?