Kurt Ullman wrote:
In article ,
George wrote:

Not in my state. When they want to build a store we obtain the site and
prepare it for them for free (corporate welfare by transferring wealth
from taxpayers) including the infrastructure such non-trivial costs as
utilities, highway interchanges etc
And of course building highways, running sewers, etc is not a
function of government in your area?

Absolutely. But the government didn't pay for my lot and let me use it
for free or install my driveway or extend the mains just for me and
install the sewer lateral or water lines into the house.

Also, nobody ever builds anything
near a WalMart to use the infrastructure so it is only built for Walmart
and nobody else benefits and n0 other buildings are built so no other
tax money comes in.

Not in my area. So far the original Walmarts and the new sites we
prepared for or are preparing for them are occupied only by them. The
highway interchange, traffic signals etc are solely for their use. And
even if they were shared by others why would the taxpayers need to pay
for it? Let a developer buy and prepare the property and lease it to
their commercial customers or as in the case of some organizations that
have multiple properties have their property management division acquire
and prepare the site for their use.

Cities and towns loss leader as much as any
retailer.


and give them a nine year tax
exemption. They *explicitly* do not pay property taxes and they pay a
very reduced corporate franchise tax or whatever that tax is called to
the state. When the nine years is about to run out they move across the
street to restart the nine year clock. The third local walmart is about
to move across the street as I write this.
Sounds like more of a problem with the local tax authority. WM is
pretty much required by its fudiciary responsibility to try and get the
most out anyone they are negotiating with.

The program is run by the state and the locals have little to say. Sure,
everyone should negotiate for the best deal and then there is greed. I
don't see any particular other reason why Walmart needs to be a welfare
queen.