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Apple to build campus in Austin and sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City

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Re: Apple to build campus in Austin and sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City

#111
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't roads funded from gas tax? And schools are almost entirely paid by the local property taxes, at least in the communities where most of Apple employees will live.

Texas has a"Robin hood" school finance system, where districts with high property values are subject to recapture, where they send a large percentage of the property taxes collected to the state to be used for districts in less wealthy areas. If memory serves, Austin ISD sends almost half of its billion dollar budget back to the state.

$670 million this year. Due to our our exploding home values and decling enrollment.

Re: Apple to build campus in Austin and sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In some cases they are. There was an episode of Planet Money where they were discussing Kansas City Kansas and Kansas City Missouri competing for the same companies and companies going back and forth across the state border to whoever would give them the best deal. The companies were squeezing all of the benefits from having the company be there out of the city. It took decades for some cities to wise up and realize…

I guess (e.g) Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Seattle didn’t get the memo. Odd since Seattle and Atlanta recently lost franchises that they’d add new ones if it wasn’t worth it.

I'm a bit lost. What major sports franchise is Atlanta adding? Looking at [0], I see new(ish) soccer, Overwatch and arena football teams, but none of those are really among the "big money" sports in the US, nor do any of those require the sort of support from the city/state that, say, a new NFL stadium would require.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_in_Atlanta

Re: Apple to build campus in Austin and sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City

#113
post #8

Big corps love to brag about "adding jobs", but don't like to brag about the "tax incentives" they are getting. There are usually huge costs for the whole community. Austin tax incentives for Apple seem to be relatively small [1], but Foxconn factory in Wisconsin is an extreme case. I highly recommend the Replay All podcast episode on this [2][3] [1] https://www.statesman.com/news/20120901/austin-council-oks-8... [2]…

I saw this video about LA a few days ago and it is very sad how these tax incentives are ruining entire states. [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWTic9btP38

Oh, I saw that too! Did the link come from HN? Can't recall but I was shocked.

Re: Apple to build campus in Austin and sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess (e.g) Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Seattle didn’t get the memo. Odd since Seattle and Atlanta recently lost franchises that they’d add new ones if it wasn’t worth it.

Seattle didn't lose Amazon, if that is what you are thinking. We have enough Amazon already, it goes a long way.

I think GP is talking about the Supersonics (NBA team) which moved from Seattle to Oklahoma City in 2008.

Re: Apple to build campus in Austin and sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And many states in the US compete in the same way eg the states that have much lower state income taxes its ok for them. Its the same in the EU where Ireland had very low CGT - that's one reason Google has a big office there - access to an educated English speaking work force is another

I believe you mean corporation tax, not captial gains tax, as CGT is well above the European average here in Ireland, while corporationtax is quite low.

Sorry your right my bad

Re: Apple to build campus in Austin and sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City

#116

omitted from the title, but included in the article, is that they're also expanding in boulder colorado. i know that location has been under construction for at least 6 months now. my business was having some construction done, and we kept getting bottom of the barrel subcontractors, because our contractor also has the apple building, and kept sending their good folks over there. :(

Are you sure it's not the Google building too? They have had constant construction for the past 2 years.

Re: Apple to build campus in Austin and sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City

#117
post #8

Big corps love to brag about "adding jobs", but don't like to brag about the "tax incentives" they are getting. There are usually huge costs for the whole community. Austin tax incentives for Apple seem to be relatively small [1], but Foxconn factory in Wisconsin is an extreme case. I highly recommend the Replay All podcast episode on this [2][3] [1] https://www.statesman.com/news/20120901/austin-council-oks-8... [2]…

Dallas did something just as stupid for Hunt Oil several years ago. At the same time they were cutting wages for city employees. It's short sighted in the extreme.

Re: Apple to build campus in Austin and sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Taking less money from someone who is building a business in your area is not a cost" Let's look at what that someone will be expecting of your area - working roads, a fire department, a police department, public transportation, a school system, a library, a park, emergency services. How is an influx of of potentially much more people consuming those services not a cost?

That certainly is a cost. But it's not what the parent poster was saying... I'll bet the costs you speak of are covered by income taxes and the corporate tax, with a little leftover per employee (so - a large pot of extra money at the end of the day).

>" I'll bet the costs you speak of are covered by income taxes and the corporate tax, with a little leftover per employee (so - a large pot of extra money at the end of the day)."

So you believe all local governments run a budget surplus? You can't be serious. You realize there operating expenses and capital expenses right? Maintaining an existing bridge and building aa new bridge are very different budgetary consideration.

Re: Apple to build campus in Austin and sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why the EU has laws against this kind of race to the bottom between nations

Can you elaborate on these laws?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU_illegal_State_aid_case_agai...

Re: Apple to build campus in Austin and sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's weird to frame net new revenue as a "huge cost the whole community" Taking less money from someone who is building a business in your area is not a cost. They have a choice on where to build, and tax burden is one of many factors in that choice.

The problem is that the companies get municipalities to compete to provide the best incentives package. With sufficient competition and assuming well meaning, rational government officials, the winning municipality will have to reduce their "margin" (new tax dollars - incentives) down to a very small amount. These incentives often require the government to take out large loans that they will be paying down for decade…

20 years sounds like a reasonable time for the investment to pay off.

It's not mindblowingly tremendous, but not a catastrophe either.

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