LeRoy, author of the 1994 book No More Candy Store and founder of Good Jobs First, a national clearinghouse on job subsidies at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said: "This is what poses for 'economic development' in America today: states admitting that corporations will pay no income tax for 15 or 20 years, a city admitting that it pays for jobs from other states, and deals routinely costing more than $100,000 per job."

"Horror stories like these explain why economic development is getting such poor results," said LeRoy. "Despite a massive 20-year increase in spending by states and cities, average wages for working people have been declining. Most development subsidies are officially indifferent to job quality. That is a scandal."

The list:

#1: Willamette Industries' lumber mill expansion in Hawesville Kentucky is entitled to $132.2 million in tax credits to create 15 jobs - $8.8 million a job!

#2: The New York Stock Exchange pulled down a package worth at least $600 million just to stay put - at least $109,000 per job.

#3: Norton Healthcare is buying three hospitals in the Louisville area with help from tax-free industrial revenue bonds, but hasn't recognized nurses who voted for a union.

#4: Tax increment financing in Minnesota is subsidizing at least 31 companies at $100,000 or more per job. But some TIF deals are merely corporate relocations.

#5: Hazelwood, Missouri residents are battling City Hall over a controversial industrial park financed by TIF, made possible by a pre-blight designation of their farming area.

#6: Ipsco, a steel mini-mill company, is getting subsidies in Alabama worth $166,000 to $187,500, as much as Mercedes got. The State admits the company won't pay any income tax for 20 years.

#7: Brownsville, Texas admits it subsidizes the transfer of jobs from other states, perhaps even some from Des Moines, where Steelworkers are striking Titan Wheel.

#8: Hyundai is suing Eugene, Oregon for a 100% property tax abatement on a microchip plant, apparently not satisfied with an 85% deal worth $110 million.

#9: Shintech withdrew plans for a plastics plant in Louisiana's "cancer alley" before a possible environmental racism decision against it; the plant was slated for subsidies worth $469,000 per job. "These are all off-the-shelf incentives," the company said.

#10: Avondale Industries near New Orleans has received subsidies estimated at $119 million, but it hasn't recognized its workers, who voted for a union in 1993.

Honorable Mention: to Time Warner for running its November series on corporate welfare, including a box announcing that it will seek a "large incentives package" for a new Manhattan headquarters... however, the deal is "not contingent" on the subsidies... but oh, did you notice, nine other media companies got theirs?

Breaking News in Alabama - The Center for Public Trust, a Montgomery-based government watchdog group, has mounted a challenge to what the group calls "subsidy secrecy" in Alabama. CPT group filed a Freedom Of Information request with the Alabama Department of Revenue earlier this week, demanding data on more than 200 deals since 1995 in which companies will not pay any income tax to the state for the next 20 years.

"How can you calculate the real costs and benefits of the business incentives system, much less make sound economic policy decisions, without having this information?" asked Mike Odom, the group's director. Odom believes his FOI request is the first written request filed for this information under Alabama sunshine law. In December 1998, the Department told CPT orally that the requested information was exempt from disclosure requirements. However, a new tax commissioner took office earlier this year.