The Billionaire Boondoggle

February 1, 2019
Garofalo, the former assistant managing editor for opinion at U.S. News and World Report, presents an astute argument against the courting of big entertainment by politicians and city leaders.The author asserts that this greed-driven entanglement is a mutually beneficial financial arrangement only profitable for those doing the handshaking, leaving community programs and employment forecasters with the empty promises of sizable funding that often fails to materialize. Armed with palpable outrage, Garofalo systematically supports his allegations with pages of fact-based, real-world examples. He begins with the Hollywood movie machine, which swoops into urban areas with the promise of an "economic renaissance" and reaps the benefits of tax breaks, funding that could be earmarked for government programs or underfunded schools. The author describes internet retail giant Amazon's epic search for a second North American headquarters location, which ignited a fiery bidding war in several major cities. Yet the company's proposal required aggressive corporate tax incentives to "offset initial capital outlay and ongoing operational costs." The location offering the sweetest deal wins, Garofalo acknowledges, but at the expense of funding local social services and infrastructural improvements that truly require the kind of financial support spent on corporate tax breaks. In a few of the author's most inspired and fiery rants, he skewers sports stadium "swindles" and hosting bids for the World Cup or the Olympics, which he colorfully describes as "an orgy of waste, spending, and unfulfilled promises." Refreshingly, he also discusses a concerted group of grassroots Bostonian activists who managed to deflect the entire bid away from their city. Though not entertainment-based, big-box stores and the public subsidies they receive also attract Garofalo's scrutiny. A robust closing chapter on the history and the dizzying facets of the corporate tax provides an appropriate coda to an intensive analysis. Though he advocates for swift policy changes and corporate tax reform, the base-level solution, he writes, is resisting shoulder-shrugging complacency and voting in local representatives who will resist this type of inequitable exchange.An alarming, fact-driven jeremiad urging change and action.

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February 15, 2019
Many taxpayers may have a suspicion that corporations often make out like bandits when it comes to paying taxes, while the average Joe is left holding the bag. This book will confirm their suspicion. Garofalo specifically looks at how city and state governments have been manipulated into charging low?or no?taxes by the entertainment industry while studios reap big gains. His explorations include states that pay the movie industry to film on location; big hotel chains or retail outlets that receive tax breaks to locate in a city; large sporting events, such as the Olympics or World Cup Soccer, that make heavy infrastructure-building requirements of cities that host the event; sports leagues that blackmail cities into building new stadiums; how lotteries and casinos are actually a tax on the poor; and big corporations like Amazon that force cities to bid against each other for the privilege of housing company offices there. The final chapter discusses myths about corporate tax cuts. Garofalo's writing is straightforward and uncomplicated; the average reader will come away better informed.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)