Good Jobs First Blog

New Mexico State Auditor Tim Keller is a man on a mission. No one is doing a better job implementing a new national corporate welfare sunshine rule.

As the person in charge of compliance with Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) rules by every locality in the state, Keller and his

Birmingham, Alabama set a positive example last winter when it exceeded a new accounting rule and disclosed far more tax-break information than is required under GASB Statement No. 77*. The biggest city in a free-spending state that has been notoriously opaque, it named company names, disclosed the number of tax-break

Good Jobs First today lauded the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) for its latest formal guidance on how localities and states should disclose the costs of economic development tax breaks. Noting that the guidance apparently corrects at least one state auditor and some accounting firms, Good Jobs First called upon state officials and firms to publicize the new guidance and, if necessary, to revise and re-issue any erroneous instructions they may have given.

Washington, DC, March 9, 2017—A study released today examining various tax incentives and tax accounting practices in New Mexico found that the state could gain more than $206 million per year by enacting safeguards common in other states. The study also finds that New Mexico lags behind most other states in making public relevant information about its tax incentive programs.

More than half of the nation’s 50 biggest cities and counties still fail to disclose online even the names of the companies receiving property tax abatements or other costly economic development incentives. Even fewer report incentive-deal outcomes: Only 13 of the 50 localities disclose the number of actual jobs created by one of their key incentive programs.