Friday’s Kansas City Business Journal had a terrific piece about the problems with corporate welfare and economic development in Missouri, written by Clint Anderson. You need a subscription to read the whole thing, but I wanted to point it out anyway. It hones in on the recent incentives given to Applebee’s to move back to Missouri. Anderson wrote:
Here we are in the spring of 2011, and the Applebee’s division of DineEquity has secured $12 million of tax giveaways from Missouri taxpayers to cross the state line by 500 feet. Being the “Show-Me State,” Missouri has been shown the path for such nonsense by none other than Kansas’ former Secretary of Commerce David Kerr.
Kerr presided over Kansas’ handouts to Applebee’s in Lenexa, and now heads up the Missouri Department of Economic Development. Kerr is experienced at shoveling taxpayers’ money into Applebee’s coffers.
If you can’t read it online, try to get a hard copy of this week’s Business Journal to read it. It is worth your time.
