Republicans Turn Missouri Into a Top Welfare State

The Republicans control the general assembly in Jefferson City. A new report tells the story of how they managed to turn Missouri into one of the top welfare states in the country. BBCW gave an example of this foolishness just the other day, and now this story reports come to Missouri if you want a corporate welfare handout.

Missouri Journal reports:

States are using an increasing amount of money withheld from workers’ paychecks for subsidies, and Missouri is among the nation’s top offenders.

More than $700 million a year is funneled to businesses in 16 states, according to research byGood Jobs First, a public policy organization.

The study finds that as states try to keep jobs within their border by handing out money to some of the country’s largest corporations, states may be giving away too much in tax incentives.

“You assume that money goes to schools or libraries, but in these states it goes to the employers,”Kasia Tarczynska, the Good Jobs First analyst who examined the subsidies, told Missouri Watchdog.

Among the 50 states, Good Jobs First reports there are just five programs allowing employers to keep 100 percent of employee’s state withholding taxes, and Missouri accounts for two of those — the Missouri Quality Jobs Program and the Missouri Automotive Manufacturing Jobs Act.

Does this corporate welfare keep jobs in Missouri? I look back to when Governor Matt Blunt made a huge corporate welfare donation to the Chrysler Corporation to modernize the Fenton plant to get it off the closing list. It saved jobs for a couple of years, but that factory looks quite empty as you drive by it on I-44 these days.