Project Description

In the past several decades, state and local governments have increasingly used grants, loans, and tax cuts for specific businesses as a means of encouraging economic development and job creation. Billions of public dollars have been expended despite indications that this approach:

* often does not result in creating nearly the number of jobs promised;

* yields low-quality jobs, in terms of wage levels and benefits; and

* subsidizes many companies which are not good corporate citizens; in terms of their adherence to regulatory laws such as those governing labor relations, occupational health and safety, and environmental protection.

This project, involving extensive research and community planning, aims to change the debate on economic development strategies in the Northeast, with the goal of establishing new community standards for public assistance programs to business. In its first phase, the Northeast Corporate Accountability Project is focusing on the states of Connecticut and Maine, where recent legislation requires companies that have received assistance to file annual reports that disclose their employment and wage levels.

Research Director for the Northeast Corporate Accountability Project is MarcBreslow.

[Publications] [Staff Bio] [The Commonwealth Institute]

Northeast Corporate Accountability Project, The Commonwealth Institute
P.O.Box 398105, Inman Square Post Office, Cambridge, MA 02139,USA
Phone 617/547-4474, Fax 617/868-1267, email: mbreslow@neaction.org