Citizens for Tax Justice reports on a recent change in Rhode Island law that ensures that Rhode Island citizens will understand better the impact of tax incentives for businesses. Finally, a State Where Taxpayers Know Who they are Subsidizing, Tax Justice Digest. The law requires the state to publish the names, addresses, and amounts of tax credits received by businesses during the preceding fiscal year. See Susan Baird, R.I. posts $54M in tax credits, Providence Business News, Sept. 11, 2008. The state will eventually release an additional report showing "the full-time and part-time jobs created or retained by each recipient, and the employee benefits provided; the degree to which each recipient has met tax-credit requirements and goals for job creation or retention and employee benefits; and the full cost to the state of each tax-credit awarded."
Now, folks, that's information. Some of these credits were specifically intended to create jobs in the state. Others were for facilities, economic revitalization, or simply for jobs with big production budgets (which I assume is expected to translate to more jobs for state residents). How will the citizens evaluate the results? What if CVS, a national corporation that enjoyed more than $17 million in credits, created a de minimis number of new, low-paying jobs. Would the state be better off doling the $17 million out to individual low-income jobseekers rather than to the corporations? It's hard to know, but they will have much more information at hand for making those judgements than is the case in most states. Good for Rhode Island.
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