Only a generation ago (not long, really), most conservatives would have rejected something like the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s ineffectual, wasteful attempts to manipulate the economy for the benefit of a few insiders’ friends.
Today, communities across our state are beset with any number of unctuous men hawking a kind of big-government conservatism, with false promise after false promise about community development or job-creation. It’s junk economics, to be sure, but for every oily salesman there’s an obliging, oily toad among the press happy to flack these shams.
Fortunately, there many who see though this, including conservatives who have not descended into hucksterism. (I’m a libertarian, not a conservative, yet I well know that there are varieties of conservatives, and conservatives who have not abandoned the truth of economic uplift through markets free of state interference.)
Consider the men and women of Wisconsin’s MacIver Institute as a positive example:
According to an article in the May issue of State Legislatures Magazine, states offer billions of dollars in subsidies with little to show for it.
“Today, every state offers at least some sort of tax incentive for businesses,” according to the article by Jackson Brainerd, a research analyst for the National Council of State Legislatures. “Yet, despite lawmakers’ enthusiasm for corporation-specific incentives, many economists, experts and other observers, from the left to the right, doubt they are an efficient use of public money.”
Groups including the conservative Madison-based MacIver Institute question whether states should even be in the business of subsidizing business.
“We believe government does not have a role in this arena,” said Brett Healy, executive director of MacIver, which promotes a free-market approach. “Any time the government gets involved in this type of corporate welfare, picking winners and losers, all sorts of problems crop up.
“If we take a step back and be honest with ourselves, this is not a critical or core mission of state government,” Healy said.
Well-said.
Via What should Wisconsin do to boost business? @ State Journal.