Finally!... a reporter covering the real SCANDAL!
From
@thecentersquare: Multi-billion-dollar and trillion-dollar companies continue to receive taxpayer funds to expand operations in Texas.
The latest is Morgan Stanley Services Group, Inc., which has a $314 billion market cap valuation, as of Sept. 28.
The financial services company is establishing a new hub in Dallas and receiving nearly $44 million in taxpayer money to do it.
Critics argue TEF is corporate welfare and companies would expand operations in Texas anyway because of Texas’ business friendly policies. The grants impose additional costs on cities “in the form of reduced revenues and increased liabilities,” and there’s no meaningful measurement to quantify incentives to economic well-being, the Better Cities Project has argued, The Center Square reported.
State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, said that Morgan Stanley getting millions in taxpayer money was another example of “Outrageous corporate welfare. Morgan Stanley does not need $44 MILLION of my constituents’ hard-earned money. Politicians (in both parties) need to stop robbing taxpayers blind to give money to rich corporations! END CORPORATE WELFARE!!! END PROPERTY TAXES!!!!”
Morgan Stanley is the latest company to receive millions in taxpayer funds. Last week, the trillion-dollar pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly received a $5.5 million TEF grant. SpaceX, valued at more than $1.7 trillion, received $30 million in TEF grants and two local school districts are losing millions of dollars in property taxes through another JETI grant, The Center Square reported.
The Center for Economic Accountability has long called on the governor and legislature to end TEF and other taxpayer funded grants, arguing they “make local economies less free, less fair, less inclusive, less resilient, less entrepreneurial, less innovative and more biased in favor of large incumbent businesses.
“Academic research and real-world experience demonstrate that economic development incentives do not create any more jobs or economic growth than would have happened otherwise,” The Center Square reported.
@BethanyBlankley