The (Maine) Beacon: Opinion: Lack of corporate tax transparency hurts Maine
“When corporations receive lucrative tax incentives and fail to pay their fair share in taxes, they profit from the hard work of Mainers and exploit the resources in our communities while shortchanging our prosperity,” writes Maura Pillsbsury of the Maine Center for Economic Policy.
Pillsbury noted the recent Good Jobs First transparency study, “Financial Exposure: Rating the States on Economic Development Transparency,” ranked Maine poorly when it came to the transparency of businesses tax incentives.
“Based on a review of five Maine business tax incentives, which are estimated to cost Maine taxpayers over $96 million in FY23, minimal transparency was found across a number of categories including:
- location, year, and nature of projects
- whether project applications and proposals are publicly available for review
- type of business and parent company of awardees
- subsidy awarded and subsidy disbursed/claimed
- number of projected jobs vs. actual jobs created
- projected wages vs. actual wages
- reporting on projected and actual capital investments
- whether program data is clear and easy to obtain”
Read the full story at Beacon.