I agree that tax incentives are not a partisan issue.
I disagree with the blanket statement that hard data shows that they don't work. Certainly there have been instances where outcomes have been suboptimal, but by and large they provide incentives for businesses to invest in localities. Quoting the piece: "When incentivized firms relocate, incumbent businesses and individuals end up footing the bill for the increased demand in public services." One counterargument here is that incremental jobs and activity allows the locality to leverage fixed infrastructure and lower the cost for incumbent businesses and individuals. The failing is that localities treat the tax revenue as purely incremental and spends it all on other stuff, rather than returning the efficiency benefits to the incumbent businesses and residents. Also ignored is the incremental impact of employment taxes that the new jobs will contribute, as well as the increased demand for local products and services that the incremental employees will bring.
One Place Pays, Others Benefit is another gripe in the article. Well, so what? If surrounding areas benefit then good on them. So long as the majority of the benefit redounds to NYC/LI, which it will, then who cares if CT or NJ get some ancillary benefit. Would you turn down a pay raise at work because your children or spouse would benefit?
The article complains that countless stories of companies receiving special treatment and ultimately having to cut back on the promised jobs and investments. Some investments fail to live up to expectations. Business involves risk, and many businesses overpromise and end up underdelivering. Notwithstanding, NYC would still have received benefit of incremental investment and new jobs, if not 25k jobs. And the majority of the tax incentives would have scaled back as well automatically.
The final piece of the article (Real Tax Reform is mostly spot on. I disagree with the blanket first statement that claim that targeted incentives are bad policy. Targeted incentives can work in the right circumstances. Certainly for generational opportunities as the Amazon deal it can work. Businesses are for-profit organizations and will make decisions to maximize profit. That does not make them evil. They are what they are. The article highlights that Indiana, North Carolina, Kentucky and others have made their business taxes fairer and more efficient, moving up the rankings and decreasing their need to offer large tax breaks to new firms. Virginia is in the middle of the pack, at 22nd, while New York comes in near the bottom at 48th (despite improvements to its corporate tax in recent years). It’s no surprise that Newark, N.J., in the worst performing state on the Index, felt the need to offer Amazon a package worth approximately $7 billion. Therein is the crux of the matter. This is not a Amazon issue. This is a NY issue that the politicians choose to ignore, simply viewing businesses as victims to fleece for tax dollars to pursue their whimsical and ideological ideas.