MOCO SEEKS TO LURE CORCORAN GALLERY TO WHEATON: The Washington Post's Jonathan O'Connell reported this week that DC's Corcoran Art Gallery and school (where Sam Arora recently got married), may be moving to a new location. The facility is apparently operating at a loss right now and hopes to cut expenses by selling their building. Montgomery County is now trying to lure Corcoran to the redevloping area near Wheaton, Maryland's Red Line metro station. See this excerpt from the Washington Post report:
DC-based land-use blogger Richard Layman analyzed some of the potential new sites for the Corcoran. He seems to be pessimistic about the idea of Corcoran moving to the 'burbs, unless a local jurisdiction can round up money to poach the institution. We shall see where this goes!
VIRGINIA GIVES REDSKINS $6.4 MILLION FROM TAXPAYERS TO DO NOTHING: Meanwhile, unlike the Corcoran's very real attempt to re-locate, the Washington Redskins apparently have no plans to move their headquarters and training facilities out of neighboring Virginia. That didn't stop Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell from giving $6.4 million to the NFL's 2nd most profitable franchise -- just in case they might one day think about moving. *collective eye roll*
I could really care less what Virginia chooses to do with its tax money, but I thought this was a noteworthy story. After all, it seems to be a new regional phenomenon to see elected officials trying to give money to companies so that they won't move -- even if they never had plans to move. Read an excerpt from Laura Vozella's report in The Washington Post yesterday:
LOCKHEED & BECHTEL DEJAVU: This new justification for crony capitalism and corporate welfare is very disturbing. Is the public really supposed to accept policymakers giving away tax dollars to profitable corporations, just in case they might one day think about leaving -- without any evidence of companies trying to leave? This seems absurd! And yet, MoCo tried this exact argument with Lockheed Martin when the County Executive tried to give away $1 million of the County's money. You may also recall that Maryland even gave defense contractor Bechtel a $9.5 million loan while it was packing up for Virginia!
One amusing aspect to this scenario is that Virginia lawmakers are even arguing that they don't need to use corporate welfare to retain companies, because their low corporate tax rates should take care of that problem. Amazingly, even that is not enough to stave off mindless corporate welfare in Virginia.
Lesson learned: Apparently, even if we lower tax rates, we can expect nonsense policymaking to continue. The Virginia example just proves that industry will simply make up arguments to try and squeeze resources from State and Local governments. Its obviously best to just treat these self-interested arguments as the rantings of craven political players.
WASHINGTON POST: When Corcoran’s board of trustees voted unanimously last week to authorize the shopping of the building, they said they had to do so to address its chronic operating losses, including $7.2 million for the fiscal year that ended last June....
Officials from neighboring jurisdictions have begun setting up meetings with Corcoran management to propose locations they hope could lure the museum — and, importantly, its art school — outside of the District....
“We have been in communication with them and expect that we will be visiting with them in the short term,” said Steve Silverman, director of economic development for Montgomery County.
Should the Corcoran move to a neighborhood such as Wheaton, Silverman said, it might help kick off a resurgence akin to the one Silver Spring experienced after the American Film Institute reopened there in 2003 after leaving the Kennedy Center....
DC-based land-use blogger Richard Layman analyzed some of the potential new sites for the Corcoran. He seems to be pessimistic about the idea of Corcoran moving to the 'burbs, unless a local jurisdiction can round up money to poach the institution. We shall see where this goes!
VIRGINIA GIVES REDSKINS $6.4 MILLION FROM TAXPAYERS TO DO NOTHING: Meanwhile, unlike the Corcoran's very real attempt to re-locate, the Washington Redskins apparently have no plans to move their headquarters and training facilities out of neighboring Virginia. That didn't stop Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell from giving $6.4 million to the NFL's 2nd most profitable franchise -- just in case they might one day think about moving. *collective eye roll*
I could really care less what Virginia chooses to do with its tax money, but I thought this was a noteworthy story. After all, it seems to be a new regional phenomenon to see elected officials trying to give money to companies so that they won't move -- even if they never had plans to move. Read an excerpt from Laura Vozella's report in The Washington Post yesterday:
WASHINGTON POST: Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s $6.4 million deal to keep the Washington Redskins’ corporate headquarters and August training camp in Virginia is not sitting well with House budget-writers....
Committee members also objected to McDonnell’s pursuit of the deal — without informing legislators, they contended — after House members had twice rejected similar plans during the General Assembly session.
“He’s making a decision that’s contrary to what the vast majority of House members thought was appropriate,” said Del. R. Steven Landes (R-Augusta)....
Said Landes: “There wasn’t a lot of support for using state tax dollars to help the company and keep them in the state. Not that folks don’t want them here . . . [but] because they’re the second most profitable NFL organization....”
Virginia Finance Secretary Richard D. Brown and Martin Kent, McDonnell’s chief of staff, appeared before the highly skeptical committee to answer questions about the deal....
Brown and Kent did not present the arrangement as one that would bring new jobs to Virginia, but one that would prevent them from leaving....
But committee members said they doubted the team would have left Virginia given the relatively high corporate and income tax rates in Maryland and the District....
LOCKHEED & BECHTEL DEJAVU: This new justification for crony capitalism and corporate welfare is very disturbing. Is the public really supposed to accept policymakers giving away tax dollars to profitable corporations, just in case they might one day think about leaving -- without any evidence of companies trying to leave? This seems absurd! And yet, MoCo tried this exact argument with Lockheed Martin when the County Executive tried to give away $1 million of the County's money. You may also recall that Maryland even gave defense contractor Bechtel a $9.5 million loan while it was packing up for Virginia!
One amusing aspect to this scenario is that Virginia lawmakers are even arguing that they don't need to use corporate welfare to retain companies, because their low corporate tax rates should take care of that problem. Amazingly, even that is not enough to stave off mindless corporate welfare in Virginia.
Lesson learned: Apparently, even if we lower tax rates, we can expect nonsense policymaking to continue. The Virginia example just proves that industry will simply make up arguments to try and squeeze resources from State and Local governments. Its obviously best to just treat these self-interested arguments as the rantings of craven political players.
