Do Tax Break Create Jobs?

A goodly number of politicians keep telling us that. I suspect those politicians get significant campaign dollars from lobbyists for businesses. But to me it just sounds like more trickle down hogwash. Our governor here in Wisconsin is touting the budget that has lots of tax breaks for business again with the ideas we will be rewarded with lots of jobs. Let’s see he campaigned that he would create a quarter a million jobs didn’t he and how many jobs did he create? Oh yes, he also promised 10,000 new businesses. That promise was made in 2010.

In May of this year the state released job count based on the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages dealing with about 97% of state businesses. The report said 32,373 jobs were created in 2012. In 2011 29,800 were created for a total of 62,072 jobs. Not bad but a far cry from his claim. Walker only has 223,600 jobs to go.

New York also got into the job creating business by spending $2.8 bill on state and local tax breaks for businesses between 2007 and 2011. The state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said that this created more than a million jobs at an average cost of $2,700. Pretty good eh?

But there is a problem with his figures as David Cay Johnston points out; it didn’t happen. He shows that in 2007 NY State had 8,515,960 people with jobs according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By May of 2011 NY State had 8,427,560 jobs. Let’s see; oh that is a loss of 88,400 jobs. So it cost the average New York taxpayer about $500 per household to lose jobs; or $31,415 in tax breaks per job lost. DiNapoli may have something to say but he won’t talk to Johnston. I wonder why.

Job creation is the issue we need to address and folk have a variety of ideas about how to go about this. Again this is a common good issue that gets all messed up with the politics of the game.

I think Doreen wants to hire a teenager to help with the yard work to provide relief to the old dude she married to who don’t care as much about the backyard no one can see but is mowed. She also wants to hire some Spanish folk to help as they did before who some folk probably thing, incorrectly, that they are illegal aliens and worked their heads off for us. I wonder if we should apply for a tax break? Naw, it’s just a good thing to do for all concerned.