The practice of luring existing companies from one state
to another in exchange for big subsidies doesn’t create new jobs, drains
states of public-service funds and leaves taxpayers with the tab, a new
study from the Washington, D.C.-based Good Jobs First finds.
Interstate
job fraud, when companies re-label jobs as “new” in exchange for up to
nine-figure state subsidies to relocate, is wasteful and net benefits
are microscopic, said Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First,
during a teleconference with press Thursday.
“Putting
lots of eggs in a few corporate baskets reduces funding available for
the low-risk, high payoff investments and education and infrastructure
that benefit all employers,” said LeRoy, the study’s primary author.
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Researchers on a conference call today questioned the 
President Barack Obama kicked off his second term today with a speech that covered a plethora of progressive issues, including same-sex marriage, preserving the middle class, sustainable energy and climate change.
As lawmakers continue to make little progress in their negotiations
over the federal budget, local senior rights advocates warn that
proposed cuts in spending to the country’s social safety net would
negatively affect many of the state’s elderly and most vulnerable
residents.