Corporate Hog At The Trough Award "private gain, public pain"

The Corporate Hog at the Trough Award is awarded to big businesses that take the most in corporate welfare dollars and give back the least to their communities.

“Small businesses pay property taxes that are spent on the services they use such as roads, water and sewerage systems, fire and police protection and our schools. Small businesses create about 60 percent of all new jobs in our state's work force, but they don't receive massive tax breaks. In contrast, big business creates only 10 percent of all new jobs but uses public services more than anyone. And yet, big business receives $300 million in corporate welfare annually and pays no school tax. This means that small businesses are paying more than they should because big business doesn't pay what they should,” Marylee Orr, Executive Director of LEAN.

With regard to the impact corporate welfare programs have on economic development, the argument by big business is that the incentives create and retain jobs for the state. However, the numbers don't bear this out. In 1998, companies were given $300 million in taxpayers' dollars but created only 6,250 jobs. That means the state paid $48,000 a job. Even more telling is that between 1982 and 1995 the state paid manufacturing big businesses $4 billion in tax breaks and 26,000 jobs were lost. Taxpayers paid $154,000 for each job lost.

"Why should three percent of the companies in this state be paid this outrageous amount of money to create only 10 percent of the jobs?" Orr asked "That's a question we will be asking publicly during the Louisiana Quality of Life Campaign until we get an answer or until something changes."