Triangle Event: Challenging the Jobs Scam

Each year, cash-strapped state and local governments shovel over $50 billion worth of tax breaks, free or low-cost land, and other "recruitment incentives" to corporations who promise to locate or expand in their area. State leaders call it "economic development," but advocate Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First has another name for it: The Great American Jobs Scam.

That's the name of an excellent new book by LeRoy, the first to exhaustively document the shady deals and fuzzy economics behind corporate subsidies. His message is especially important in North Carolina, which after a budget-busting deal giving Dell Inc. over $280 million in give-aways last year, has just expanded its corporate subsidy programs.

NC state leaders apparently saw no problem handing over millions of taxpayer money while, as NC Policy Watch put it, "This has been a legislative session where lawmakers have repeatedly told advocates for affordable housing, child care, and mental health that times are tight and there simply isn't enough money to make significant new investments in human services."

Those living in the Triad (Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem) and Triangle (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill/Cary) of North Carolina are in luck -- you can hear first-hand from Greg about how corporate subsidies are undermining our state, and what you can do about it, at two book-signing events organized by the NC Justice Center, the Institute and other groups:

BOOK SIGNING EVENTS

WHO: Greg LeRoy, author of The Great American Jobs Scam: Corporate Tax Dodging and the Myth of Job Creation

GREENSBORO EVENT
WHEN: Tuesday, August 9 at 7 pm
WHERE: Barnes & Noble in Greensboro, 3102 Northline Ave.

RALEIGH EVENT
WHEN: Wednesday, August 10 at 7 pm
WHERE: Quail Ridge Books and Music, 3522 Wade Ave., Raleigh (In the Ridgewood Shopping Center, at Wade Avenue and Ridge Road, near the Whole Foods)

Hope to see you there!