Pennsylvania voted 197–5 to repeal a data center tax break projected to cost $517M annually by 2030, stripping benefits from Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet.
I love doing this sort of math on things. They could have just paid all those people $200,000 a year for a decade to sit on their ass and it would have cost the same.
Tax exemptions for activity that would not have taken place without those tax exemptions cost the state nothing - no money is being “thrown” and no tax income that would otherwise have been received is being forgone. Meanwhile, giving “poor guys” $200,000 a year costs $200,000 per year per poor guy. That’s the difference.
I love doing this sort of math on things. They could have just paid all those people $200,000 a year for a decade to sit on their ass and it would have cost the same.
Well no, they couldn’t have, because this is money they can’t get in any case. Data centers that aren’t built don’t pay taxes.
So throwing money at a rich guy is good but throwing money at poor guys is bad. Got it.
Tax exemptions for activity that would not have taken place without those tax exemptions cost the state nothing - no money is being “thrown” and no tax income that would otherwise have been received is being forgone. Meanwhile, giving “poor guys” $200,000 a year costs $200,000 per year per poor guy. That’s the difference.
Okay, exempt a bunch of normal folks from taxes then. Hell, if you start with the lowest bracket you could give money to thousands of people.