Friday, March 31, 2006
A MESSAGE FROM GOOD JOBS FIRST
A national brawl has broken out over subsidies to big-box retail. Except this time it’s not anti-sprawl activists protesting Wal-Mart. Instead, it’s the #3 outdoor sporting goods retailer ratting on #1 and #2. Check out www.sayno2outdoorsretailsubsidies.com
As readers of The Great American Jobs Scam will recall, I call out #1 Cabela’s for its business model of seeking huge subsidies for its mega-stores (see chapter 2 free on the www.greatamericanjobsscam.com/chapter-2.pdf , page 64-67) which it touts as tourist “destinations.” Already, Cabela’s facilities have received or been pledged more than $300 million in subsidies in just 12 communities! #2 Bass Pro (privately held) is also on a store-building binge, also lands big subsidies – and may even win a whole new subsidy (sales tax TIF, truly bad news) enacted by the state of Ohio.
Now comes #3 Gander Mountain challenging subsidies to Cabela’s and Bass Pro, espousing the radical idea that there should actually be a free market and a level playing field.
As Gander Mountain’ s developer Mike Ayers once put it: “If you give [a tax break] to a Wal-Mart, should you give it to Target? If you give it to Home Depot, then should you give it to Lowe’s? And if you give it to Bass Pro, shouldn’t you give it to Cabela’s and Gander Mountain? How about we just don’t give it to anybody?”
The idea of denying subsidies to big-box retail is truly an idea whose time has come. Our Shopping for Subsidies (www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/wmtstudy.pdf) study about $1 billion in subsidies for Wal-Mart facilities remains the most-often downloaded report on our website. And as we compile elsewhere on our website (www.goodjobsfirst.org/ corporate_subsidy/hidden_taxpayer_costs.cfm), 22 states have now disclosed which companies have the most employees and/or dependents on Medicaid and/or State Children’s Health Insurance Programs.
Kudos to Gander Mountain for taking a principled stand. As I argue many different ways in Chapter 6 of Jobs Scam, subsidizing retail is almost always a bad idea.
Greg LeRoy
Good Jobs First
