Our tax system used to serve as a check on corporate power. Now it fuels market concentration and undermines the ability of small businesses to compete, Susan Holmberg and Niko Lusiani explain in ProMarket. … Read More
“It’s time to revisit and reimagine the proactive role tax policy can have in enabling fair competition, tackling concentrated markets and in turn driving productivity and innovation, lowering prices, and fueling more and better jobs,” says Susan Holmberg, a co-author of the report.… Read More
Local and federal policymakers have systematically structured tax policy in a way that deepens the concentration of corporate power, Stacy Mitchell and Susan Holmberg argue in this issue brief, co-published with the Roosevelt Institute.… Read More
Even when state economic development programs purport to be open to businesses of any size, in practice, they overwhelmingly favor large companies, according to a study released Tuesday. The study determined that 90 percent of a $3.2 billion pot of economic development incentives was awarded to large firms, a finding that casts light on one of the ways that small businesses are placed at a competitive disadvantage.… Read More
In our op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, we look at how much of our public policy seems to designed to bend the market in the favor of big corporations, and put small, independent businesses at a competitive disadvantage.… Read More
The news that Amazon wants to expand its footprint in Minnesota, but only if it wins significant public subsidies, should put both taxpayers and public officials on high alert.… Read More
ILSR joined other members of the Advocates for Independent Business coalition in submitting a joint public comment letter in support of a landmark proposal to require local and state governments, as part of their financial reporting, to annually disclose the tax breaks and incentives they have provided to corporations in the name of economic development. … Read More
A new study finds Amazon’s sales drop in states where it is required to collect sales taxes, revealing what Jeff Bezos has undoubtedly known for years: the company’s success, its track record of shuttering local businesses, is as much a product of government favoritism as it is of its own ingenuity. … Read More
To regenerate local businesses, we’ll need more than Buy Local campaigns; we’ll need to change public policy, which now favors big business. In this presentation, Stacy Mitchell looks at seven key policy areas to focus on.… Read More
