If only we’ll give them just one more tax break, this time they won’t piss it all away.
“Sears Holdings Corp. plans to close between 100 and 120 Sears and Kmart stores to raise cash after a weak holiday shopping season for the retailer,” APreports.
“The closings fueled speculation about whether the 125-year-old retailer can turn itself around.”
I wonder if Quinn – and the Illinois General Assembly – knew that Sears was (supposedly) banking the futures of 120 stores on Christmas shopping under catastrophic economic conditions whenhe signed more than $150 million in tax breaks to the company into law under cover of darkness two Fridays ago.
You know, I do get that there are things government can do to reward businesses that genuinely create jobs and improve the local tax base. Public infrastructure improvements, for example, that make a location more attractive: We’re gonna come here but you have to have the roads to support us.
But this constant practice of massive tax incentive packages doesn’t actually help the targeted company any more than it helps the community, because if you relocate a business you need the cops to patrol it and the schools to educate the children of employees and money to keep the streetlights on. Without all that, you’re left with someplace not even the CEO wants to live.
A.