The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "corporate welfare" ...
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Crime in the suites
The San Francisco Bay Guardian takes a look at welfare, welfare reform and corporate welfare.
Tags: welfare; San Francisco; welfare recipients; corporate welfare; welfare reform; taxes; deals; welfare wages; contracts
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Georgia's Corporate Tax Giveaway
The Atlanta Business Chronicle discovered Georgia's legislature giving away corporate tax breaks to companies that agreed to create jobs and build new facilities within state borders. The paper had to sue the state to get access to the information. The pressure forced the Governor to help change state law to give the public access to the tax records. Jordan then proved that one of the companies did not create as many jobs as it promised prior to getting the tax break.
Tags: business; taxes; corporate welfare; jobs; public subsidies
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Welfare that Works: Lessons from Three Experiments that Fight Dependency and Poverty by Rewarding Work
The American Prospect magazine examines three welfare experiments by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, which tested policies that would reward getting a job and minimize dependency.
Tags: Welfare; experiments; Manpower Demonstration Research Center; incentives; disincentives; dependency; money; poverty; policy; United States; U.S. government; race; economics; income; jobs
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Bending the Rules
The National Law Journal reports on Clinton administration's project XL - shorthand for "excellence" and " leadership" - which rewards good corporate citizenship. Companies get year of relief from costly regulatory scrutiny, if they prove they can handle hazardous waste, plant more cleanly and take better care of their employees by using procedures different that those set out under the federal law. The project has raised concerns among environmentalists who find that the corporations granted the regulatory break may easily violate environmental laws, the Journal reports. Intel, Anheuser-Busch and 3M are among the few who received the opportunity to break federal laws.
Tags: EPA; politics; pollution; public health; safety; welfare; regulation; Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); workplace inspections; worker safety
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Business Incentives or Corporate Welfare?
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigated Wisconsin's incentives programs in this three-part series. "Wisconsin jumped on the incentives bandwagon in the mid-1980s in a big way, with programs and expenditures proliferating to meet or anticipate almost any demand expanding businesses might make. While state officials offered soothing assurances about accountability for the programs no one... had attempted to analyze the effectiveness of the programs..." The newspaper found: spending reached $1 billion during the past 12 years, "many of the state's largest... firms were the biggest recipients of state largess" and "job creation promises were overblown and poorly monitored."
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The Giveaway Game
Economic reporter John Hancock examines whether economic incentives, such as subsidies and tax breaks, are cost-effective methods of attracting and keeping businesses within certain communities. Some states are spending more than $3 billion annually to court corporations, which ofen play states against each other -- by lying about other offers. States are egged on in the process by consultants who take a healthy cut of the profits. Rarely do the incentives generate an increases in employment or the economy.
Tags: economy; subsidies; tax break; business; corporate tactics; incentives; employment; extortion; Marriott International DAP Inc. Parks Sausage corporate welfare
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The Client
The Eugene Weekly reports on how "top state officials changed Oregon law to save $170 million in tax breaks for a corporation (Hyundai) that lost a $15-million employment discrimination lawsuit."
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Swiping Benefits
The Progressive "reveals numerous significant downsides to the U.S. government's much-ignored new electronic benefit transfer (EBT), by which recipients access cash benefits and food stamps." The investigation uncovers problems for recipients, such as invasion of privacy and lack of consumer protection against lost or stolen cards, but big benefits for corporate contractors such as Citibank and Lockheed-Martin.
Tags: welfare reform fraud elderly disabled homebound training access paperless government
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Hazard from Below: Abandoned Oil Wells in Texas
This three-part series examines the crumbling infrastructure of Texas' once-thriving oil and gas industry, detailing how government oversight and corporate welfare contributed to massive ecological devastation in the face of economic decline. "Over the last century, there have been between 700,000 and 1 million oil and gas wells drilled in Texas.... Abandoned, unplugged and leaking wells litter the state. If not properly plugged, they become perfect pathways for saltwater and other toxic fluids found deep underground to pollute groundwater aquifers..."
Tags: CAR pollution Railroad Commission; Natural Resources Conservation Commission; SEC; campaign contribution
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Business Incentives or Corporate Welfare?
The state of Wisconsin has handed out more than $1 billion in incentives over 13 years to a small fraction of the state's public and private firms. Development officials claim this practice creates thousands of new jobs, but a computer investigation by the Journal Sentinel found these claims are often false. The average job created by the business incentives program costs the public $90,000 -- or nine times the state's own maximum cost-per-job guidelines.
Tags: None