Stickybuffalo.com

Because, as Andrew Kerr observed pointedly in “As Good as We Get,” hand-outs are strictly for rich corporations.

Especially here in the Buckeye State, with said corporations essentially running the show through the Republican legislature and their (certainly not “our”) very pro-business governor, John Kasich. Earlier this year, there was already the ninety-three million dollar gift to American Greetings which had me steamed up.

And that’s almost chump change, now, with Johnny “dangling a $400 million package” in front of Sears in hopes of luring them here from Illinois (in the somewhat uncomfortable phrasing of the Plain Dealer‘s Henry Gomez). For the most part, there’s nothing new to say about this, really. Moreover, even for the purposes of a propaganda drill, I don’t need to say a whole lot because there were so many good quotes in the cleveland.com article.

First of all, let’s recognize that this isn’t unique to Ohio, of course. “Kimberly Freely, a Sears spokeswoman, confirmed last week that about one-third of the 50 U.S. states have submitted proposals to the company. Freely said the company does not comment on incentive deals.” Well, why should they; what is there they can really say about their parasitic extortion of money from a society in which the general public and the government have been nearly bled dry already.

Oh, and this is choice: “One Democratic state lawmaker noted that Ohio’s reported offer to Sears was nearly as much as the $421 million loss the company posted last quarter.” Hey, isn’t that convenient. Even-Steven!

Rep. Mike Foley of Cleveland pointed out the obvious, noting that “if a deal like this goes through, it would create no new net jobs in the country, but instead just push them from state to state while putting Ohio taxpayers on the hook for $400 million.” Neat, huh?

Former governor Strickland elaborates on this point, and how “ultimately, it results in a race to the bottom in terms of what the state must give up to offer a perceived advantage to a company.”

Dale Butland of Innovation Ohio hit some of the other key points: “it strikes me as shocking — especially at a time when Gov. Kasich says there is no money to help schools or local governments whose budgets he has savaged. Somehow you find $400 million to lavish on a company? I think with this administration there is no sense of restraint. No amount of corporate welfare is too great.”

Republicans, of course, bluff and bluster right past this in their trademark style. Kasich himself brags and chortles (which seems to be serving him so well with voters, really). And the PD quotes a statehouse Republican also sticking to the usual tough-talk script: “[Other states] have taken from us for the past 10 years. We’re fighting back.” But, the implications…?

Hey, Republicans, remember? They don’t do “implications!” (Except when it comes to protecting civil liberties or reducing “defense” spending.) For those who do, however, Strickland apparently “had been in talks with [American Greetings] before losing his re-election bid last fall [and] said he was not willing to support the tax incentive his successor quickly embraced.”

“The American Greetings family is deeply entrenched in Cleveland. I don’t think they were going to leave Ohio, and I think they got a really good deal,” he says, and while it’s easy to say that now, is the suggestion really so far-fetched? These policies would seem to be creating atrocious incentives for corporations to bluff and complain as much as possible, even per the simplified economic narrative preached by Republicans themselves. Doesn’t that narrative, after all, basically embrace the idea that “greed is good,” that the pursuit of profit makes society better, which idea must fundamentally assume that the profit incentive influences behavior. What conceivable reason is there for a profit-maximizing corporation to decline to lobby for location-based “incentives” at every opportunity? What penalty is there for “cheating” by squeezing money out of the system when they don’t really “need” it?

Oh, well. None.

But there’s no need to worry; “Kasich has said in the past that there are limits to how much he would offer a company to relocate here.”

“We’re not going to get into a bidding war. If we think that there are other states that are plotting, and you’ve got somebody in between who’s driving up the price, at some point we say no.”

Just what point that might be is left typically vague, given that in the case of Sears alone, as reported one-third of the fifty states are “plotting,” and Kasich himself is plainly “driving up the price” rather than saying “no.”

“America: fuck yeah.”

Update: if you think I doth protest too much, well, on this issue at least I have to say it seems increasingly unlikely. Check out the growing list of profiteers climbing on-board the Ohio gravy train. My favorite points from this new story:

• This is the same Kasich, mind you, who went before the Ohio public to plaintively report “we’re broke.” Yeah, fucker? I wonder why?
• “Timken has been discussing the project [for which it's grabbing $19.5 million in unfunded tax-breaks] for months, saying demand for the company’s specialty steel is reaching an all-time high.” So naturally they need public subsidies. Right. Everything adds up, there.
• Most of these giveaways allegedly have some requirement, e.g. “Ford must keep the Ohio Assembly Plant open for 18 years.” Two questions: 1) keep it open “on paper,” you  mean? and 2) what if they don’t? The big tough state government will use its obviously-considerable leverage to… what? Hand them another bribe?