Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Corporate Welfare Watch: Boston Scientific Redux

By

From today’s Globe. Emphasis added:

A state board that grants tax breaks to corporations is again withholding information about its awards before it votes on those requests, a move that critics contend leaves no time for the public to review and respond.

The Economic Assistance Coordinating Council is scheduled this morning to vote on requests by Boston Scientific Corp., Smith & Nephew, eClinicalWorks, and other companies for millions of dollars in state and local tax incentives, in exchange for increasing jobs and investment in Massachusetts. But the council refused to release the company’s proposals or the staff’s recommendations on the amount of money to award each company prior to the scheduled vote.

[snip]

…Quincy last week approved a $320,000 property tax break for Boston Scientific, which must be approved by the state council. The Natick maker of medical devices promised to invest $55 million in its Quincy distribution center by 2013 and create five full-time jobs by 2018.

Boston Scientific has previously drawn criticism for receiving millions of dollars in tax incentives to expand in Marlborough, and then cutting jobs.

In March, the Globe reported that the state has given out hundreds of millions of dollars in state and local tax breaks to projects that would almost certainly have been built anyway. Recipients have created few quality jobs, or never delivered the jobs promised. But the state said it has made changes to the program to address those concerns.

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Comments

  1. If the “Commonwealth” is for the common weal (common good), shouldn’t we (in an effort at truth in government) start calling ourselves the “Corporatewealth of Massachusetts”?  Or, maybe, “Boardmemberswealth” of Massachusetts?  “Hackswealth of Massachusetts?”  

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    p> “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”  –Fredric Bastiat

  2. Hi Folks.

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    p>Corporate welfare is bad.

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    p>However, might I suggest that rather than changing our state’s name to reflect certain very sad realities, we instead demand true and total transparency in what our government is doing?

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    p>This is precisely the type of thing I would be looking to highlight and get fixed as your next State Auditor.  The Auditor’s office cannot effectively do it on its own; we need direct citizen participation in auditing government, and that is what I am proposing.

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    p>Kamal Jain
    Candidate for Massachusetts State Auditor
    http://MassTransparency.com

  3. “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”   –Fredric Bastiat

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    p>I’m a huge fan of Bastiat, and encourage everyone to read “The Law”.  It’s short and worth reading more than once.  The law must apply equally to all.

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    p>No one is above the law.

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    p>Kamal Jain
    Candidate for Massachusetts State Auditor
    http://MassTransparency.com

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