The local daily has a great piece on the impact of upcoming legislation that would change the way cities charge privilege taxes. You may have noticed, there is a double-standard in the way the cities forecast revenues.
For example, if a business wants a few million in corporate welfare, the disbursement from the taxpayers is viewed as a boon because there are direct, indirect, and induced returns.
If a city implements the new, flat-rate privilege license fee structure, which it will have to, then it will lose money. Unlike large corporations that take economic development incentives to create jobs and invest in the economy with the big but-for; large corporations that get a huge tax break will stash the extra cash in their private hoard and use it in ways that don’t trickle down to customers, don’t allow them to hire more people at better wages, and definitely prevent them from having a little extra to purchase from other business people in ways that will benefit both outfits. No. Tax relief has no secondary consequences, but, as you can plainly see, the economic impact of corporate welfare continues to bludgeon – er, burgeon – like galaxies from a Big Bang each and every day.
I might ask why Walmart is the enemy. Every day we read about food shortages and families that can’t afford to feed their children. Then, we attack one of the cheapest grocers around and want to extort funds from him so we can maybe cater lunches to committees who want to meet to figure out how to feed the poor.
