If you go look at the "design" documents for US municipalities, the various incorporation documents, you will see that they speak directly to abating taxes to incentivize development. Here's an example from 1898 (not sure if this charter is still in effect in the Baltimore):

https://books.google.com/books?id=UVuiQ5HKgqoC&lpg=PA152&ots...

So there are in fact legal mechanisms, deeply rooted in the laws of municipalities. The stuff you are claiming is foundational to making the system work is just wrong.

I didn't go digging for an example that would prove my point, I searched for a city I recalled competing for the HQ2 and went with the second one I searched (The first page of results for Austin didn't turn up an obvious document).