Transparency, accountability and market-based reform of state & local economic development programs across America. Pay for your own damn stadium.
Joined June 2018
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Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
"No new tax doesn't mean no taxpayer cost." @VanceGinn on the new Chiefs STAR bond district and why Kansas should lower costs for everyone instead of picking winners.
kansaspolicy.org/kansas-shou…
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
Arkansas’ proposed economic development amendment would give unelected boards broad powers over taxes and taxpayer dollars. @johnmoz explains why expanding corporate subsidies would put Arkansas taxpayers at risk.
buff.ly/DQ6MlF9
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
A proposed economic development constitutional amendment in Arkansas has a number of fundamental flaws that create very serious risks for taxpayers and communities. My analysis for @ReasonFdn:
reason.org/commentary/arkans…
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
Anyone who advocates giving $850 million in taxpayer money to a billionaire for the purpose of building an new stadium lacks the moral high ground to comment on "fair share" tax initiatives.
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
Everyone in Cook County will have to pay more in property taxes so a corporation will get a subsidy.
It’s whack-a-mole economics. Lower the taxes for one business, raise them on residents and other businesses. Never acknowledge the real problem a government spending.
We need a property tax cap.
Efforts to transform long vacant land along the north branch of the Chicago River between Bucktown and Lincoln Park into a new neighborhood advanced Tuesday with a vote to use $201.6 million from the area’s TIF districts to subsidize the project.
to.wttw.com/4y6F5PC
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
If 20 years of public investment in downtown is as successful and transformative as supporters claim, why does downtown still require subsidies?
Either it's working or it isn't, it can't be both. – at Kansas City, MO
Ladies and gentlemen, here is a @MO_Independent piece even @RGreggKeller will like:
missouriindependent.com/2026…
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
Or, hear me out, we could simply STOP DOING DUMB CORPORATE WELFARE DEALS even for non-criminals.
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
"They came to the desert, a land of milk and money, a land of milk and government subsidizing."
@AccountableEcon
nevadacurrent.com/2026/09/03…
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
If data centers (or any other business) receive public support, then the public should have as much access to the details of the deal as any Wall Street firm, hedge fund, venture capitalist or other ‘investor.’
Unlike other tax breaks, tech giants can shroud special Michigan data center tax incentives in secrecy
New reporting from @DNBethLeBlanc on a little-known provision in a state law written by Democrats that will keep the true cost of data center tax breaks a state secret.
detroitnews.com/story/news/p…
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
"(Corporate welfare programs) are more correctly assessed using the tools of political science than of economics. When you do that, they all start making sense. They make no economic sense because they're not economic tools, they're political tools."
- @johnmoz
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
In Lansing today to testify to @truestevecarra’s House Oversight subcommittee on the intersection of energy policy, economic development policy and electric utility lobbying in Michigan.
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
And the funding mechanism approved for $510 million of it is only defined as “legally available sources,” which is LITERALLY the least the KC City Council can do in terms of fiscal planning.
It's entirely possible that Kansas City will approve its $1B+ share of an overall $1.5B+ Royals stadium subsidy just three days after the proposal was released, which would be in the running for shortest public discussion period ever for a stadium deal. fieldofschemes.com/2026/08/1…
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
I wonder how many Oracle/Cerner employees are left in #KansasCity after state and local leaders dumped truckloads of public money on the company to, y'know, create jobs. – at Kansas City, MO
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
Why Stadiums Aren't Economic Catalysts #economics #stadiums #subsidies #... youtube.com/shorts/SIsK1wDDH… via @YouTube
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
Um, no.
Construction jobs, sure, but they're temporary.
"Failure to deliver on headline-grabbing promises is a common complaint. As @AccountableEcon's @johnmoz puts it, #datacenters 'stand out for being especially abysmal tools for an economic-development strategy.'"
#corporatewelfare
pacificresearch.org/cities-s…
.@FT “…monthly spending on data center construction hit $50 billion in the U.S. in April.” That’s a lot of jobs.
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
Honored to be the Emergency Backup Liveblogger for @fieldofschemes today at the @UMBC Sports Economics Conference. Got a whole day of presentations on stadiums and economic impact ahead, follow along here: fieldofschemes.com/2026/06/0…
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
A Bears stadium in Indiana would be built, in part, by making every restaurant meal in 917 square miles of northwest Indiana cost more for residents and visitors alike.
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
It is simply untrue that stadiums generate "a massive amount of economic activity." NFL teams host only as many customers in a year as an average-sized American supermarket does (~700,000). In reality, stadiums spend almost their entire lives dark, empty & silent.
So we just lost the Chicago Bears over real estate taxes that the Bears have never paid in the history of the team. The local boards in Arlington Heights - who would’ve received those taxes - wanted to do the deal. Every team in the NFL gets tax breaks for a reason … these teams can go anywhere and they generate a massive amount of economic activity wherever they go.
The Bears will be moving to Indiana for one reason - Illinois is completely and wholly incompetent. The mere fact that - after all these years - they were scrambling at midnight to figure something out only highlights the point.
Democrats have cratered Illinois and nothing here is getting fixed without sweeping political change.
Vote red!
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
Here's the historic church the State of NC tore down last year (after invoking eminent domain) to make way for the VinFast EV factory that was never built. The state's now suing VinFast to get some taxpayer money back, but the church and several homes/biz are gone forever.
Center for Economic Accountability retweeted
No, they've spent two decades trying to get *taxpayers* to build them a new stadium. It's not the "building the stadium" part that's the problem as much as the "sticking someone else with the bill for it" is.
(And their existing stadium is only 35 years old.)
The Tampa Bay Rays, the owners of the best record in the major leagues, have spent nearly two decades trying to build a new stadium. Their latest proposal might be their last shot. on.wsj.com/4v2qbYI
