Independent business owners are often stunned upon learning about the plethora of financial incentives offered to big boxes by cities hoping to snag the next big supercenter. From deep property tax discounts to long term cash infusions to (in the most radical cases) negotiated sales tax payments, the rules are anything but consistent. Big guys get big deals; little guys pay full fare.
A piece that ran on the BuisinessWeek website last week lays out those details in a stark and brutally honest manner. Written by Stacy Mitchell, a senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, it spells out not only how much public money is handed to big boxes during the wooing process, but goes on to examine what, exactly, the economic impact is moving forward.
I’ve long stood by the premise that unless they’re also bringing 200 warm, tax-paying bodies to fill the “200 new jobs being brought to the community,” big boxes don’t expand local economies. In most cases, they reduce the number of local independent merchants, not only in that town, but also in smaller ones within driving distance. Factor in the public money slipped across the table, and well….
That big discount store is sure making up the difference elsewhere.
Read the full article here.
Thanks to Penny Murano (Unleashed New London) for the link.
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