Evidence from Across the Country: Economic Development Subsidies Don’t Work
The Los Angeles Times’ Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Michael Hiltzik published a piece that observes exactly what we at The Show-Me Institute have been saying for years: economic development subsidies, “often are an unnecessary bonus to companies that already have made a site location decision based on more important factors.” Think of Burns & McDonnell, whose development partner already owned the land adjacent to their existing world headquarters when they sought subsidies to build a new HQ.
Hiltzik even quotes urban economist Richard Florida, whose call to cater to “creative class” millennials was swallowed hook, line, and sinker by Kansas City and Saint Louis politicians. Florida later recanted.
Hiltzik doesn’t pull any punches and ends his column with a repudiation of film tax credits, which Missouri wisely ended in 2013. The whole column is worth reading.
