Wal-Mart's Expansion Aided by Many Taxpayer Subsidies

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/business/24walmart.html?ex=1085976000&?en=5d25e0f3b458c43d&?ei=5062&?partner=GOOGLE

Wal-Mart Stores collected well over $1 billion in state and local government subsidies during its decades-long expansion from a regional discount chain to the world's largest retailer, according to a report scheduled to be released today by a group that monitors job-subsidy programs.

"We're not accusing them of doing anything illegal or unusual in the corporate world," said Philip Mattera, research director of Good Jobs First, a group based in Washington that compiled the report with financing from the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

But, Mr. Mattera said, the report argues that the low wages paid by Wal-Mart and the downward effect that has on wages at other retail operations, its negative effect on small businesses in the communities where it locates and its contribution to urban sprawl and traffic raise serious questions about the value of giving it sizable financial incentives to expand.

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Here's another reason these pigs represent the worst of our society.

After they open up shop, with their McJobs without benefits, everyone else in the community faces downward pressure on their income and benefits (assuming they even keep their jobs.) The community has a sudden sharp increase in the number of people without any health insurance whatsoever. The result? People forego medical care until they are terribly ill and then go to the emergency room, where the cost is orders of magnitude higher to treat the sick person. And who pays? Not Wal-Mart. They operate virtually without any tax burden at all. It's the rest of society that shoulders these costs which should have been an operating expense for Wal-Mart in the first place.

It's a sweet racket. Offer products made by slave labor in your own factories in China and pay your retail employees the minimum wage. Extort a tax giveaway from the community and then let everyone else pay all of your expenses. That's how they've become the largest retail chain as well as the largest money launderer for the GOP.

Each Wal-mart store of 200 employees costs the local community something like $420,000 a year in costs borne to subsidize local housing, medical, utilities and food.

http://edworkforce.house.gov/democrats/releases/rel21604.html

With a little over 3,200 Wal-marts in the US (not counting the SAMS clubs), that would add up to 1.34 Billion/year in costs straight out of tax payer pockets.

Talk about a scam.

isn't that amazing? After all those rantings about "welfare queens" by Reagan, and the Republicans have now created a world where the kind of the bastardized version of capitalism they've given us is no different from the 'welfare queens' they used to criticize.

Clearly, the only irony that befits this sad state of affairs will be when the Democrats boot the assholes who bring us this shit out of office and apply Democratic principles to bring us a functioning capitalist society.

Then closed and moved their operations to a "Supercenter" 40 miles away. That was 15 years ago and the town hasn't recovered yet nor probably will.

our town is footing the bill for road improvements which walmart will pay back someday- ya right....the worlds largest corperation nickle and diming everyplace they go..

Heard about it on 'This is Hell!' at www.wnur.org on Saturday morning. A community activist spoke in detail of Walmart's political efforts at breaking into the huge Chicago market.

The show is archived at the above link.

They are real progressives...cognizant of their employees and the community!

:kick:

I think this list tells the story

http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?city=BENTONVILLE&st=AR&last=Walton

expansionism! Boeing, Lockheed, Haliburton, Nike, etc. etc. etc. (to quote the King of Siam). FUCKTARDS ALL! WHEN ARE THE PEOPLE GOING TO ARISE?

Google corpwatch I forget if it is org or com.

5 walmarts here, its freaky

- Amount of total sales : $256 billion.
- Profit : $9 billion.
- Customers : + 100 million per week.
- 5000 supercenters (450 to 500 more this year = 15 million square feet).
- Each month $1 billion for purchasing terrains.
- 1.4 million employees
- Average wage for "partner" (cashier for instance) : $9.70/hour (about $16 000/year)
- Defender in lawsuits per year : 8000.

"Fiscal gift" for Walton family (39% owner of WM) : $900 billion this year, "only" 300 last year).

In China Wal-Mart works with 3000 plants. ($12 billion = 10% of the US importations from China)

with stores on every other corner driving out the small business owners, we are being herded toward shopping there. With the same goods and products at every store our spending is directed and controlled. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if manufactures have to pay to get their products on the shelf.

I was on a property tax review board that worked to resolve property tax disputes for bother commercial enterprises and individual property owners. Walmart came in one day with a tax appeal on a Super Walmart in or county.

They brought in an appeal based on an appraisal. The appraisal had the values set well below (a few million!) the actual market value of the property but the wrinkle on it is that the local taxing bodies have to fork over for a new appraisal to fight the low one produced by Walmart. They got a reduction after negotiations with some of the taxing bodies, but it was not as large as what they'd asked for originally.

What was so icky about it all was that they'd HAD a property tax reduction as part of the incentive package the city had offered to attract them in the first place. Once those initial incentives had expired Walmart wanted them to continue--and that is why they chose to ask for the reduction.

They have an entire Dept at Walmart corporate just for this purpose...

What makes this even more ugly is the fact that property taxes in Illinois go to pay for things like roads, and schools and operating budgets for cities (including fire and police protection.)

Walmart is NOT a good corporate neighbor, and don't ever let them say they are.


Laura