Imagining the Ideal World - Economics and Ecology: United for a Sustainable World - page 146

and whatever services that might be needed can presumably be negotiated
among existing members of the community. In fact, the required land may
already be owned, because existing business interests may well be involved
in any new venture. Moreover, locally based owners and managers will be
much more sensitive to potential environmental damage because they live
there, raise their families there, and may already have a lifetime commit-
ment to the community. In addition, they are vulnerable to the ire of their
fellow citizens, with whom they already identify if they in any way destroy
the community's social-environmental quality.
6. Property Tax Breaks
Breaks in the amount and timing of paying property taxes are one of the
most common incentives to lure business to a specific location. Because
there are literally thousands of communities willing to offer such incen-
tives, for many large firms it qualifies simply as a necessary condition.
Often, as with enterprise zones , these tax breaks are for a 5-year period.
Common among corporations seeking to establish a branch operation
(somewhere) is the premise that unless they can foresee a complete return
on their investment in 5 years or less, it will not be deemed feasible. Then,
as today's corporate thinking goes, having recouped their initial invest-
ment, they will need to make a decision whether to stay or leave. Especially
with high-tech firms, whose technology changes so rapidly, it often proves
feasible to simply abandon the old facility rather than upgrade it, espe-
cially with another community somewhere else waiting to start the next
5-year tax-free clock running all over again. (See principle 9 under point
4 above.)
These types of incentives will be much less prevalent under a local strategy.
All their options, by definition, are properties in the local area. The appar-
ent bargaining power is considerably less, and tax variations may not even
be considered an important variable with the local interests involved. At
least, if a tax break is offered, the increase in wealth that results will accrue
to someone in the community, as opposed to having the benefits disappear
somehow to the head office of some national or multinational corporation. It
will definitely serve in some way to benefit the local economy. The subsidy
stays in town.
7. Free or Inexpensive Land
Here, the dynamics are similar to those for property-tax breaks. Any such
“sweetheart deal” goes to the bottom line of a balance sheet and is probably
not kept in the local area. The local benefits sought in exchange for the tax
break must be strictly in terms of the jobs created, because the economic
impact of the subsidy disappears into the topics of the corporation. Further,