Facebook's $240 million tax break request

And everyone thinks sports franchises get all the breaks. Facebook seeking $240 million in tax breaks to build a data center in the Salt Lake City area. There is some bipartisan opposition coming from Democrats and more conservative Republicans.

W. Jordan considers a $240M incentive for Facebook facility

 

What did the Newark NJ public schools do with all the facebook money they got?

 

I think the competing site, here in New Mexico, is offering more than a billion dollars.

 

Isn't it the case that the great bulk of such a tax package involves not collecting taxes that would have been levied on a hypothetical facility? So we imagine a facility, and then we imagine how much in taxes might be levied on such a facility, then we offer to not levy those taxes. So we wind up not collecting taxes that, in the absence of the facility, we wouldn't be collecting anyway. Some tax break!

 

That's the rub. "If we don't come, you get zilch, so just levy some taxes instead of taxes other businesses have to pay." I understand the theory, since the data center won't employ a lot of people, meaning the impact to the local school district is relatively small. But it brings up the question of how "special" does a business have to be to qualify for incentives.

 

Tax them til they bleed. Tax incentives are bullshit.