There's been a lot of talk lately about paying our fair share in taxes. Corporate welfare is not limited to big companies and banks that feed at the taxpayer's trough. It's alive and well in nearly every state and city of any size that is doling out tax money to companies that promise to come to town and hire people.
Forget Solindra and the hundreds of crooked cases of crony capitalism we've seen in the past four years. I'm talking about one state competing with another or one city luring a company away from another city. They offer tax abatement and pay for training new workers. Tax abatement simply means the rest of the taxpayers pick up the tab.
Good examples are Kansas and Missouri. One lured a trucking company away from the other at a cost of 24 million dollars. Meanwhile, two companies went the other way at a cost of 40 million. Who pays for this? We do, the taxpayers and their competitors who are actually paying to bring their competition to town.
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