Thursday, December 31, 2015

Who Are The Big Winners In Indiana's Public Subsidy Game?

Good Jobs First has compiled data from all 50 states regarding economic development subsidies awarded by state and local governments and published the information on its website for easy access to the public. The data for Indiana includes information about subsidies awarded between 1986 and 2013, although data from the earlier years is incomplete. It shows that 8,274 subsidies were awarded valued at more than $7.67 billion. The top 10 recipients aren't real surprising. They are:

  • General Motors: $708.8 million, 49 subsidies, dating to 2001
  • Community Health Systems: $421.5 million, 137 subsidies, dating to 2003
  • Michelin: $308.3 million, 19 subsidies, dating to 2003
  • United Continental: $298 million, 1 subsidy, dating to 1991
  • Eli Lilly: $214.5 million, 2 subsidies, dating to 1999
  • Duke Energy: $204 million, 1 subsidy, dating to 2006
  • Nestle: $200.8 million, 52 subsidies, dating to 2001
  • Simon Property Group: $187 million, 1 subsidy, dating to 1988 
  • Honda $166 million, 4 subsidies, dating to 2006
  • Mid Oaks Investments: $120.4 million, 20 subsidies, dating to 2003
The United Continental subsidy, the state's fourth largest, was a total bust. United's airline maintenance hub in Indianapolis closed only a few years after it opened. Other notable large recipients include:
  • Interactive Intelligence: $73 million
  • AK Steel: $71.6 million
  • Arcelor Mittal: $64.6 million
  • St. Joseph Energy Partners: $60 million
  • Delphi Automotive: $50 million
  • Caterpillar: $45.6 million
  • NTN Driveshaft: $42.1 million
  • Karl Schmidt Unisia: $35.3 million
  • Angie's List: $34.3 million
  • Rolls-Royce: $32.5 million
  • Zimmer Biomet: $30.2 million
  • Slater Steels: $25.6 million
  • Exact Target: $24.2 million
  • Indiana Packers: $22 million
  • EnerDel: $21 million
  • Berry Plastics: $19.9 million
  • SDI Lafarga: $17.6 million
The Indianapolis Star has a summary of the large recipients here as well. But don't forget, property tax caps are to blame for a lack of revenues to fund local government services. The billions in give-aways to public companies has nothing to do with it. 
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6 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:35 AM EST

    how about private companies? The Colts and their drug addict owner get so much public money. even the pacers... stadiums are a huge scam... So glad the idiot mayor is finally gone-hopefully in jail soon.

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  2. Anonymous11:42 AM EST

    Does it surprise anyone that per Wikipedia, in June of 2015 Mitch Daniels was elected to the Board of Directors of Interactive Intelligence?

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  3. Flogger12:32 PM EST

    The only way we would truly have a level playing across the USA is to Federal Legislation that taxed all the subsidies, that is if you had say a $50M in subsidies, $50M would be added to the companies revenue.

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  4. Anonymous2:03 PM EST

    Shouldn't these companies get 1099's for these amounts like lowly citizens do?

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  5. Gary R. Welsh2:39 PM EST

    Equal protection is pretty much dead in the area of taxation as a result of several Supreme Court decisions. Government pretty much has a blank check to discriminate in taxation as much as it wants.

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  6. Anonymous4:04 PM EST

    I want my Republican friends explain this free market capitalism thing to me again because many of these are the very names they point to when talking about Indiana's economic success stories. Far as I'm concerned, none of these companies are worth squat. They can't compete without millions of free taxpayer dollars.

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