[logn]

I wonder what the tax incentives to Apple were. A local story [1] reported: "Apple could qualify for several different state tax credits. An offer from the Arizona Commerce Authority is currently on the table but hasn't been finalized, senior vice president Nicole McTheny said."

I don't like tax incentives for big businesses to locate to a particular state. I see why they happen, as each state is put in a position to outbid the others and businesses are compelled to take free money. We should outlaw this practice with federal law and stop taking money from the middle-class to benefit the rich, under threats of having no jobs.

[1] http://www.petaluma360.com/article/20131104/WIRE/131109835/1...

[akg_67]

I used to work in Brazoria county, Texas where a few large manufacturing facilities never paid a penny in local and state taxes. One company employed about 10,000 people and there were another 40,000 employed as contractors and in supporting companies. Despite the major employers not paying taxes, Brazoria county was considered one of the wealthier counties.

The benefit to local economy comes from sales and property taxes on employees, the relocation of supporting industry nearby who didn't get tax break. The key is to offer tax incentives to right kind of business. The key is to attract business with tax incentives that will attract anciliary and supporting industry.

[pchristensen]

Most of these incentives cost more than the jobs they provide, they do not encourage businesses to make decisions they wouldn't already have made, and any promises in exchange for tax benefits are rarely even followed up on.

Read http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-American-Jobs-Scam/dp/157675... if you want to boil your blood about this topic.

[hkmurakami]

Wouldn't something like this be taking money from the rich and the middle class and redistributing it to the lower-middle class who are out of work in AZ?

[logn]

But if every state refused to offer these tax breaks, then the unemployed could still get jobs and the tax burden would not be lifted from businesses and placed on everyone else. Budget shortfalls on the state level are common and it's generally recouped through sales taxes, cutting services, raising property taxes, etc.

[hobs]

It could be, but don't the lower-middle classes get the most benefit from government dollars? (which are being redistributed to the business, which is owned by the upper classes)

[jorgem]

>> Don't the lower-middle classes get most of the benefit from government dollars?

I wonder how that could be determined. I'm curious to see graph of benefit-per-capita grouped by income brackets.

EDIT: This link is "kindof" it, but there is no way that I can see to break it down by income.

http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/US_per_capita_spending.html

[yummyfajitas]

Another bit of data which is suggestive, but again not exactly the right thing, is consumption data by income bracket:

ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/ce/standard/2009/income.txt

The actual right data would be consumption+savings by income bracket, but I don't know where to get the savings data.