WV taxpayers subsidizing Wal-Mart

by: el cabrero

Tue Jun 05, 2007 at 09:30:53 AM EDT

Good Jobs First is a policy resource center that promotes accountability for corporations and governments in economic development. They recently updated their Wal-Mart subsidy information, where you can click on a state to see how much the retail giant has gotten in corporate welfare.

Here's what they have to say about West Virginia:

There are no centralized databases of economic development subsidies, but Good Jobs First found 4 deals worth a total of about $9.7 million in West Virginia. They include the following:

Good Jobs First has compiled data on Wal-Mart subsidies in the following cities

Beckley, WV : at least $1.25 million
Logan, WV : $3.5 million
Nitro, WV : $4.9 million
Wayne, WV : not available

 

Hidden taxpayer costs

Many Wal-Mart workers are ineligible for health coverage from their employer or choose not to purchase what is available, because it is too expensive or too limited in scope. These workers often turn to taxpayer-funded health programs such as Medicaid. In December 2004, the Bureau for Children and Families, acting at the request of the Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail, released data on the employers of parents of children enrolled in the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Leading the list was Wal-Mart, with 452 workers whose children participated in the plan. Source: John Heys and Paul Wilson, "Wal-Mart Culture: Wal-Mart Tops State CHIP List," Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail, December 26, 2004, p.1A.

Greg LeRoy, Good Jobs First executive director, sums it up pretty well:

That a company with a predatory business model and a poverty-wage labor policy can even qualify for job subsidies suggests many public officials still don’t get it.

Why not go to Goat Rope instead?