To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
No Public Funds for Economic Development
Resolved: No funds derived from public taxes or fees shall be used to attract business to a particular location.
Why is this important?
Right now, my state is spending millions of dollars to steal companies from your state, while your state is doing the same thing to mine. This bizarre system is called "economic development," and its sole beneficiary is big corporations, which use it to extort further tax breaks from local communities, the state and the nation. And if the corporations play their cards right and wangle enough goodies, they may not have to pay any tax at all, as we have seen in recent years.
Unfortunately, no state can afford to unilaterally disarm in this sick game for fear of losing. Meanwhile, the public doesn't seem to realize how much of its funds are being eaten up in this corporate welfare shell game. People tend to believe our public money goes to welfare cheats, unproductive poor people and crack addicts, when the truth is that our tax monies are simply lining the pockets of greedy robber barons -- a half a million to this corporation to build a plant here, and another to that one to do the same over there -- supposedly to gain new jobs that are really just being stolen from neighboring states, while those states are stealing an equal number from us, for a net gain of zero for everybody.
There is nothing wrong with local chambers of commerce passing the hat amongst local business communities to attract new businesses, but it is wrong to do it with public funds derived from taxes and fees.
We need a national response to this problem, probably a constitutional amendment, but it probably won't happen because our legislators appear to be slaves of the wealthy corporations that are robbing us blind. Please, legislators, prove that statement wrong!
Unfortunately, no state can afford to unilaterally disarm in this sick game for fear of losing. Meanwhile, the public doesn't seem to realize how much of its funds are being eaten up in this corporate welfare shell game. People tend to believe our public money goes to welfare cheats, unproductive poor people and crack addicts, when the truth is that our tax monies are simply lining the pockets of greedy robber barons -- a half a million to this corporation to build a plant here, and another to that one to do the same over there -- supposedly to gain new jobs that are really just being stolen from neighboring states, while those states are stealing an equal number from us, for a net gain of zero for everybody.
There is nothing wrong with local chambers of commerce passing the hat amongst local business communities to attract new businesses, but it is wrong to do it with public funds derived from taxes and fees.
We need a national response to this problem, probably a constitutional amendment, but it probably won't happen because our legislators appear to be slaves of the wealthy corporations that are robbing us blind. Please, legislators, prove that statement wrong!