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AUGUST 23, 2023
On the Prospect website
* David Dayen on an obscure ruling that could legalize "Whites Only"
signs
<[link removed]'t hit that. But the Village of Mount
Pleasant and Racine County are on the hook for significant borrowing
costs on money issued for water and sewer systems. If Foxconn stiffs the
village starting in January on its approximately $26 million in annual
property taxes, the fiscal situation could turn dire.
It should be said at this point that this is what the last 40 years of
what passed in America for government-directed economic development
looked like. Cities and states gave away scads of public money to
corporations, who maybe or maybe not fulfilled their promises. There
were few if any strings attached, and little recourse if the whole
enterprise didn't pan out. These were corporate welfare payments that
pitted localities together in a race to the bottom for how much to shell
out to get some glimmer of hope on job creation.
It didn't work. And though the
**Post** story hints at how the Foxconn debacle could make the Biden
administration's industrial-policy measures look bad, this White House
is trying something a bit different. The IRA gives tax credits to
specific types of manufacturing production, with bonuses for specific
conditions, like prevailing construction wages and local apprenticeship
programs. In implementation, agencies have given weight on the handful
of grants available from the IRA and the CHIPS and Science Act to good
jobs and community benefits. It has not all been smooth-look at the
TSMC plant in Phoenix
<[link removed]'t get
through Congress.) But there's at least a semblance of a plan in the
Biden industrial policies to ensure that the successes of this policy
benefit workers, communities, and the broader economy.
That's a very different thing than just throwing money at whatever
company comes along. The Biden policies have taken incoming fire from
the center-left for trying to do too many things at once. Foxconn is
what it looks like when you do the opposite, when you just give away
money for nothing.
The Foxconn model was the standard of economic development in cities and
states for decades. (There's frankly too much of that
<[link removed]'s been shown to be extremely
treacherous and costly even when it works out. As we enter this era of
experimentation
<[link removed]'congressional watchdog' agency BY MARIAM BAKSH
The Return of 'Whites Only' Signs?
<[link removed]'Cost'
<[link removed]'s cost to 'the economy.'
BY SARAH LAZARE
[link removed]
