Posts Tagged GASB 77

Good Jobs First's Katie Furtado explains how the organization was able to determine public school districts lost $2.37 billion to corporate tax abatements in fiscal year 2019 -- and that's just what we could confirm. The actual total is much, much greater.

For decades, the public had no meaningful way of knowing how much schools lost via government subsidies given to corporations as part of “economic development”. We could reasonably assume it was substantial: property taxes are the biggest source of public school funding, so giving corporations a pass on paying some or all of it inevitably hits schools the hardest.

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?

When a local government does not report on tax abatements, is it not complying with the GASB 77 disclosure rule, or is there nothing to disclose? This blog answers the question.

By Christine Wen

July 17, 2019

As Good Jobs First readers know, a new government accounting rule called GASB Statement 77 on Tax Abatement Disclosures took effect in 2016/FY 2017, so we are now getting the second year of new disclosures. For the first time ever, most governments