Skip to main content

Making Subsidies Accountable

By Terri Rimmer

An award winner and author founded Good Jobs First back in 1998.

Greg LeRoy, who wrote No More Candy Store: States and Cities Making Jobs Subsidies Accountable and winner of the 1998 Public Interest Pioneer Award of the Stern Family Fund, has made his organization a national leader.

Good Jobs First frequently testifies before state legislatures, conducts workshops and training, and appears in the press.

Good Jobs first says that the failure of large companies such as Wal-Mart to provide affordable and comprehensive health coverage to many of their employees has been a subject of growing controversy – all the more so because large numbers of those workers not insured on the job are turning instead to government programs such as Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

According to their website, goodjobsfirst.org, Wal-Mart has received more than $1 billion in economic development subsidies from state and local governments across the country.

The literature states also that in a 50-state survey of economic development subsidy programs – such as loans, grants, and tax incentives – not one single state effectively coordinates its economic development spending with public transportation planning.

According to Good Jobs First stats report they wrote documents how two geographically targeted economic development programs, tax increment finance (TIF) and enterprise zones have been weakened in many states so that their anti-poverty impact is no longer assured.

“Our findings are deeply troubling,” said LeRoy. “Denying taxpayer subsidies for poverty wages is truly an idea whose time has come.”

The Lower Development Corporation (LMDC) has been accused by Good Jobs First of mishandling funds.

“Even though the LMDC claims that low and moderate-income residents have benefited from its programs, nowhere in our research could we find how the Corporation measures these improvements,” said Stephanie Greenwood, research analyst for Good Jobs New York.



LeRoy has just had released another book he has written called The Great American Jobs Scam.

“LeRoy has his finger on the pulse of what’s ailing American communities and destroying jobs and our environment in the process,” said Carl Pop, executive director of the Sierra Club.

“As this book reveals, the system is rigged,” Jim Hightower, author of Thieves in High Places and Let’s Stop Beating Around the Bush is quoted as saying on Good Jobs’ website.

Popular posts from this blog

Families are the Fastest Growing Group in the US Homeless Population

Content Clout: 3.0 out of 5 Rate Content 5 (best) 4 3 2 1 (worst) Published Dec 5, 2005 by Terri Rimmer happynews.com, Adoption.about.com Related Content View all (7 total) A Writing Contest is Benefiting Homelessness Community Action Committee Donate Your Old Cell Phone More by Terri Rimmer View all (163 total) Classic House Destroyed by Katrina Step Up Women's Network Offers Professional and Ph... Poor Scores for the US on Family-Friendly Workplac... Did you know? Homeless women have to deal with being victimized in shelters by some male residents. Takeaways · 81 percent of single homeless people enter and exit shelters quickly. · The Salvation Army allows for a three-night stay. · Between 700,000 and 800,000 people are homeless on any given night. Comment | Add your own article to our site Between 700,000 and 800,000 people are homeless on any given night. People like Roger and David who when they moved to Dallas thought it would be a haven. Most families beco

EZH2: Enzyme That Promotes Cancer May Also Prevent It

READ LATER COMMENT E-MAIL PRINT May Help Researchers Stop the Process of Tumor Development Click to rate: Bad < > Good Published Jan 12, 2006 by Terri Rimmer ryze.com, Adoption.about.com Related Content View all (6 total) The Children's Health Environmental Coalition... Row, Row, Row Your Boat: One Man's Battle Aga... How to Talk to and Support a Friend Facing Ca... More by Terri Rimmer View all (230 total) Bars, Live Music and Nightlife in Fort Worth How to Not Get Conned An Obscure Read Did you know? Cancer will affect 1 in 3 individuals. Takeaways · EZH2 is a biomarker enzyme. · Leandra Smith was diagnosed with cancer in 1996. · Terry Healey was diagnosed with a disfiguring cancer. Comment | Add your own article to our site An enzyme that promotes cancer may prevent it according to new research at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. A protein that identifies aggressiveness appears in two forms, according to CancerWise, a publication of the C

Money To The Wind

By Terri Rimmer Ronnie used to pay for everything with plastic, get a high off of his weekends in Shreveport, and stroll through life without a care in the world – or so it seemed. Today he has been unemployed for months, is trying to get on disability, and has to sell junk he finds just to put gas in his car. “Most of my money I lost gambling,” he told his friend Elaine recently to which she gasped. Not most of his money – all of it. When one woman dated him briefly she thought he was rich the way he flashed his credit cards around all the time, paying for everything at expensive restaurants, movies; etc. Until she saw his house and how it was falling apart at the seams. “I should be ashamed of myself living like this,” he said and she silently agreed though she knew he was in the throes of a gambling addiction that he was in denial about. Gone are the days when Ronnie would travel to the casinos out of town to gamble and come back a lot of times with a lot of money, excited to the co