It should identify areas with high levels of poverty and pursue strategies to reduce poverty in these areas. Return to Top Introduction to Public Subsidies As cities and states compete for new or relocating corporations, they often promise huge incentives in order to create a friendly business climate. For corporations considering a move, encouraging such competition has become a lucrative game of playing one jurisdiction off another to see how much they can get. And based on the record, they can get a lot. Ironically, surveys show that businesses rarely make location decisions on the basis of taxes - which constitute only a small percentage of overall operating expenses.
Subsidies come from a number of government sources, primarily state and local.
Some jurisdictions have built-in requirements and monitoring regulations which attach to the subsidies. But others have virtually no accountability mechanisms. Campaigns to win these mechanisms can be conducted in conjunction with, or separately from, campaigns around specific corporate efforts to win subsidies in your area. Campaigns around corporate welfare issues can provide opportunities for significant victories, as well as organizational expansion and leadership development. And they tend to be publicly popular because of widespread public mistrust or unease about corporations.