A United State of Incentives

If anyone thinks the states of our country are not united, the New York Times has coined a term that suggests otherwise: “The United States of Subsidy” . The Times is referring to the subsidies, often referred to as government incentives, that are currently being offered by all levels of government to companies across the nation in order to attract business to their jurisdiction and to stimulate investment.

These incentives are booming. There are over 87,000 government municipalities across America, and every one uses a different strategy to decide how to give out their incentives. This multi-billion dollar field is becoming an increasing complex puzzle being addressed at both the C-level and by top elected officials.

But up until recent years, the incentives field did not receive the type of attention received by other verticals with a similar impact. The media were not focused on it, corporations did not have departments and teams dedicated to it, and tech companies were not building software specifically for it. On the public side, as the Times reports, there has been little to no public accounting for government incentives. As the incentives market became increasingly powerful and complex, and yet remained under the radar in terms of analysis, the Times conducted a 10-month investigation of business incentives awarded by hundreds of cities, counties and states.