The State of Iowa is again chasing a major employer for more jobs using massive tax incentives. The lure of 4,000 automobile manufacturing jobs with a new Toyota plant has Iowa Economic Development officials salivating to compete with Texas and Mississippi that could require a package costing state and local taxpayers over $500 million. At the same time, Governor Kim Reynolds and the GOP legislature are in denial that extravagant corporate giveaways have decimated government services from health care to education.
It seems that every government job to provide services to our children and seniors is worthless and only jobs in the private sector have value. An article in the Business Record on August 17 cites Brendan Walsh, executive vice president of American Express Global Commercial Payments, that small employers in the “middle market” are disproportionately creating jobs.
“What our Middle Market Power Index shows us is that economic growth does not always come from the most expected places,” Walsh said. “It’s not just the small startups and large multinational companies that are hiring the most people and leading the way in revenue growth, it is also midsized manufacturers and wholesalers in the heartland, which are becoming leaner and more globally competitive. Growth in these sectors, among other middle-market industries, is what is really moving the needle for the American economy.”
Most small businesses, without public subsidies, have driven growth while huge, highly-profitable multi-national corporations have been the benefactors of the GOP largesse. This is in spite of virtual full employment and the failure of Reynolds and her cohorts to govern responsibly.
Iowa government suffers from revenue starvation. Restoring high quality public education and health care for all Iowans takes public funding. Chasing golden gooses will only exhaust our resources and further lead Iowa down the path of poor schools and deprived but needy citizens. We don’t need to chase geese, but must restore public funding of essential public services. Let’s put 4,000 public servants back to work!
by Tim Urban
Posted 8/21/17
3 Comments on "Iowa On Another Wild Goose Chase With Tax Incentives"
500,000,000.00 we’d be lucky if that was all this plant and its 4000 jobs would cost us ! It would be better to give the 4000 workers the 125,000 each over 4yrs at 15 dollars an hour is what it gives us . Now after 4yrs we would still not have recouped our total investment . It would take possibly 10yrs to recoup our investment in the form of taxes, and only then would we other taxpayers actually be making tax money on our investment . I ask you does this sound like even a okay deal to make ? Personally I think not ! It may be somewhat better than the blatantly stupid deal Wisconsin just made ,but in reality although our deal may be quite a bit smaller dollar wise, I still put it in the stupid category . None of these robbing peter to pay paul deals are worth a crap for the taxpayers, ever ! The only ones making out like the bandits they are, are the major corporations, as we with these incentivised deals let them rape us willingly and legally !
Ah, yes. More of “Thank you, sir! May I have another?” I guess in that alternate worldview, where black is white, up is down, good is bad, and sensible is stupidity, the “plan” makes sense. To whom? Well Toyota, for sure. No one else in the state.
Of course, when the state completely crumbles, more schools close, tuition for higher education goes through the roof, and roads/bridges continue to deteriorate, Toyota will take the money and run, leaving the people they employed in the lurch and becoming that burden on “good Iowans” that the Right so decries.
Other than that, it seems well-thought out
“It seems that every government job to provide services to our children and seniors is worthless and only jobs in the private sector have value.” This exact sentiment was stated to me a year or so ago by a right wing friend. This is the reason for the drive to privatize. Only jobs that have a potential to make profit are good jobs; government jobs don’t help make a profit, he said. (No, they just improve quality of life)
In my opinion the best economic relief to a middle class family is not tax cuts, but shared burden of public education and of shared cost of single payer, medicare for all Now education should be extended pre-k to 14. Then we will have shared prosperity and equality.