Subsidy Tracker Adds 17,000 New Records
We posted a new version of Subsidy Tracker, Good Jobs First’s database of company-specific subsidy awards from state and local governments across the country as well as federal agencies. During this round of updates, we added over 17,000 entries from 112 state and local programs from 28 states. We also updated the federal programs. We also added nine megadeals.
Sunshine Week: Lack of transparency and accountability casts shadow over Opportunity Zones
The idea behind the Opportunity Zones is to persuade individuals and corporations to invest their capital gains in projects in poor neighborhoods. In return, those investors receive lucrative federal tax breaks. No matter what one might think about this underlying idea of OZs, the execution and administration of the program has fallen short. Their pervasive lack of transparency and accountability is largely to blame.
Taxpayer subsidies to Amazon now exceed $3.7 billion
Good Jobs First’s latest tally of economic development subsidies given to Amazon.com finds state and local governments have given the retail behemoth more than $3.7 billion. How much more is becoming increasingly hard to tell.
Time For South Carolina To Shine a Light on Taxpayer Giveaways
South Carolina is a state that’s given large subsidies to big companies – Boeing, Michelin, Volvo, Continental Tire, Google to name a few – and it’s also been one of the worst in the country when it comes to revealing the full costs of those deals.
Reporters' Tip: WARN Act Notices.
The recent economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many companies to reduce staff or close operations. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires companies to give 60 day advance notice before a mass layoff or a business closure occurs. Here are the links to online WARN Act pages.