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Arizona Scores Well On Taxpayer ‘Money-Back Guarantees’

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Monday, January 23, 2012   

PHOENIX - Arizona stacks up well against other states when it comes to making sure taxpayer-funded economic development subsidies for businesses actually create good-paying jobs. The finding is in a new report from the organization Good Jobs First that gives high grades to states having systems in place similar to "money-back guarantees."

research director and report author Philip Mattera says there is strong public demand for accountability.

"Taxpayers have a right to demand both strong performance requirements and aggressive enforcement. When a company is given subsidies without any strings attached, that is a handout, rather than economic development."

Arizona came in 12th in the report's national ranking. States were graded on requirements for quality job creation, as well as independent verification of subsidy performance, and whether or not penalties are levied when programs don't perform as promised.

Dan Neal, executive director of the Equality State Policy Center, says subsidies can play a positive economic role, and tracking the hard numbers is the responsible way to ensure taxpayer money is well spent.

"If you have these benchmarks and then someone doesn't perform, then you can say, 'Well, we want some of our money back.' And I know in some cases, some states have been able to get quite a bit of that money back."

The report credits Arizona for cracking down on tax subsidies for retail projects, most notably a $100 million City of Phoenix incentive for the CityNorth complex. In that case, the Arizona Supreme Court mandated stricter public-benefit requirements for such projects.

The full report, "Money-Back Guarantees for Taxpayers," is at goodjobsfirst.org




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