Press Releases

09/17/2013

Who Is Funding Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s Partisan Job-Piracy Trips?

Washington, DC–September 18, 2013—Good Jobs First today released a study examining Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s unprecedented string of partisan job-piracy trips into six states led by governors of the opposing political party: California, Illinois, Connecticut, New York, Missouri and Maryland (today). It explores the funding behind the trips and the television and radio advertising that accompanies them, identifying both public and private monies that flow to TexasOne, which sponsors the trips. The report is available at www.goodjobsfirst.org .

06/18/2013

Giant Job Subsidy Packages Grow More Common and Costly

Washington, DC, June 19, 2013 — In recent years, state and local governments have been awarding giant economic development subsidy packages to corporations more frequently than ever before. The packages frequently reach nine and even ten figures, and the cost per job averages $456,000 and often exceeds $1 million.

These are the findings of Megadeals, a report released today by Good Jobs First, a non-profit resource center based in Washington, DC.

05/29/2013

Examining Local Subsidy Transparency

Study: Big Cities and Counties Fail to Disclose Costly Job Subsidies

Washington, DC, May 30, 2013 — Two-thirds of the economic development subsidy programs run by the nation’s largest cities and counties do not use the web to report which companies are receiving the tax breaks and other forms of financial assistance. Among the third of programs that do practice online transparency, most do so poorly, failing to disclose the dollar value of the subsidies. An even smaller number reveal key outcomes such as how many jobs were created.

These are the central findings of a report released today by Good Jobs First, a Washington, DC-based non-profit research center on economic development accountability. The report, Show Us the Local Subsidies, is available on the Good Jobs First website at http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/localsubsidies.

05/28/2013

Bosses for Buses

“Bosses for Buses”
Study: Employer Support for Transit is Surging Locally but Fractured Nationally

Washington, DC, May 29, 2013—American employers are organizing and winning better public transportation in many metro areas. Major employers such as universities and hospitals and coalitions of businesses help explain why state and local ballot initiatives for transit consistently win more than 70 percent of the time.

Yet at the national level, there is not a unified corporate voice for transit; this has been especially evident during three recent federal debates that affected this vital public service. Instead, there are disparate voices speaking only to selected aspects of transit.

04/30/2013

Study: State “Business Climate” Rankings Based on Flawed Data, Have No Policy Value

Washington, DC, May 1, 2013—Prominent studies that purport to measure and rank the states’ “business climates” are actually politicized grab-bags of data. They have no predictive value and should not be used to inform public policies.

Those are the main conclusions of a new study published today by Good Jobs First. “Grading Places: What Do the Business Climate Rankings Really Tell Us?” is authored by Dr. Peter Fisher, an economist who has written extensively on economic development.