These numbers are mind blowing. So much for the fuss the GOP made about Tesla or Solyndra during the campaign.
http://xkcd.com/1138/ - the per-capita data is useful, but the overall map is a classic population heatmap.
You mean the NYT's map?
It's not; Texas has a disproportionately large subsidy per capita.
So does Michigan, while places like Nevada have disproportionately smaller subsidy per capita.
I switched immediately to the per-capita numbers, but I still knew that since California was biggest, it was worrying to see Texas with a higher gross spend!
80.4 billion dollars is something like 255 dollars per capita or 700 dollars per tax payer, or 0.6 percent of GDP or 0.5 percent of US total public debt or 0.06 percent of US total unfunded liabilities (too many zeros on my calculator - I don't trust these numbers myself).
I am not an American but I knew it be Texas that must be receiving a lion's share
It's not clear to me if Texas is taking anyone else's money – from what I can tell some Texans (and Texan companies) have to pay higher taxes because other Texas companies are receiving these tax benefits.
it does kinda look like Texas spends 51% of its state budget ctrl+Z'ing federal taxes - unless I've got that wrong?
It passes up revenues equal to 51% of its budget ctrl+Z'ing its own taxes selectively.
srsly? omgwtfbbq!
(I've been waiting for many years for an appropriate reason to use that ridiculous non-acronym. Thank you Texas.)
I was not aware that Twitter had a $22 subsidy from the State of California. Hope that was a good investment.
I'm pretty sure it was just the SF city payroll tax exemption. Twitter had a credible threat to move to Brisbane, so SF basically had to give them the exemption. Then, this year, SF voted to replace the payroll tax with a gross receipts tax (which is still bad, and worse for certain businesses).
I wonder if federal or statewide legislation could help, prohibiting negative-sum subsidy competitions between smaller jurisdictions.
Minnesota (low on this list) implemented something like this, where when an area gets a particularly large tax windfall like from a corporate campus, a portion of that goes into a general fund. So if a location wants to give away some portion of tax revenue in order to lure a company from somewhere else in the state, it's not a big win for anyone. I think it's worked...? I don't know what other states do.