We are pleased to announce our new blog called CLAWBACK. We chose the name partly because clawbacks (steps taken by governments to recoup subsidies from companies that don't deliver on job promises) are one of our favorite accountability reforms. Yet we also like to think of ourselves as part of a movement that is "clawing back" in a broader sense: making economic development once again serve the common good rather than narrow private interests. CLAWBACK, which already has more than a dozen posts, is being written by the staff of Good Jobs First and our affiliates: Good Jobs New York, Good Jobs Illinois and the Corporate Research Project.
Good Jobs First today released a new in-depth article about the nation's most controversial kind of economic development subsidy: tax increment financing. The article, entitled "TIF, Greenfields and Sprawl," has just been published in Planning and Environmental Law, a journal of the American Planning Association. The article (warning: PDF) includes a segment on the notorious TIF dispute currently taking place in New Mexico, where radical TIF deregulation threatens to undermine funding for state and local public services.
The Corporate Research Project of Good Jobs First evaluates the quantity and quality of state government Web-based disclosure on economic development subsidies, procurement contracts and state lobbying activities. The study (warning: PDF)finds signs of improvement but concludes that states have a long way to go to fulfill the potential of the Internet in enhanching the public's right to know.
