Just whose money is it?

[hornadylnl]

Corporate tax breaks not always a break for city | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star

Read this article in the Red Star tonight. Amazing how our government treats abatements like it's their money. An abatement is a reduction in taxes, not the government giving them money. The city of Indy can throw hundreds of millions at the Colts yet act like they are getting screwed by a company who got an $18 million tax cut.

 

[abomb86]

The whole thing is FUBAR, and Indianapolis seems to be better than most cities is whats ridiculous.

 

[jeremy]

Two absolutes I have noticed in life...

The less equipment a Military has the more ignorant they are about rules...
and
The more people you cram into a square mile the dumber they tend to become...

 

[Ramen]

Corporate tax breaks not always a break for city | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star

Read this article in the Red Star tonight. Amazing how our government treats abatements like it's their money. An abatement is a reduction in taxes, not the government giving them money. The city of Indy can throw hundreds of millions at the Colts yet act like they are getting screwed by a company who got an $18 million tax cut.

This just underscores the idiocy of messing with the free market. Giving anyone a "tax break" so they will "bring jobs" is corporate socialism. This takes the risk off the business and forces it on the tax payers of the region. Too bad the tax payers almost always end up with the losing hand.

The book Free Lunch outlines this stuff very well. Greenwood, Indiana even makes an appearance because of the Cabela's fiasco. Subsidizing any businesses, specially for-profit ones, is wrong.

If governments want to make stupid decisions then they only have themselves to blame. Socialism doesn't work.

 

[hornadylnl]

An abatement isn't a subsidy. Why are businesses paying taxes to begin with? They are just passing their taxes on to their customers, only at an increased cost. They spend big money complying with the tax code. If individuals paid all taxes straight to the government, it would be cheaper, improve personal responsibility, and increase involvement of individuals of how government works and where their money is going.

 

[Ramen]

An abatement isn't a subsidy. Why are businesses paying taxes to begin with? They are just passing their taxes on to their customers, only at an increased cost. They spend big money complying with the tax code. If individuals paid all taxes straight to the government, it would be cheaper, improve personal responsibility, and increase involvement of individuals of how government works and where their money is going.

I agree that taxing the businesses is bad policy, but giving some businesses abatement is essentially a subsidy if not everyone else gets it. The field isn't level, even if the field is terrible in the first place (due to taxes).