Press Releases

Washington, DC—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, April 20, 2017—Good Jobs First today criticized Columbus, Ohio’s 2016 financial report for mischaracterizing some tax-break spending. While the City provides substantial information on economic development tax breaks, it fails to report all of them in one place, and to fully disclose foregone revenue, as it should under a new accounting rule, Good Jobs First contends.

Washington, DC, April 18, 2017—Good Jobs First today announced a large new addition to Violation Tracker, the country’s first public database of corporate crime and misconduct: more than 34,000 cases brought by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor since the beginning of 2010 for violations of overtime, minimum wage and other provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Washington, DC, March 21, 2017--Good Jobs First today expressed concern at Bloomberg BNA's revelation that Amazon.com, Inc. has been awarded more than one third of Illinois' entire tax break allocation for the past two years of the state's Economic Development in a Growing Economy (EDGE) program.

Washington, DC, March 8, 2017— 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.