The big news about GE moving to Boston is more than just a story about a large company moving from the suburbs to the big city—it's also about how far cities will go to attract new jobs, and at what cost.
"GE got a pretty good deal on their new, Boston home," writes Evan Horowitz.
Although Horowitz mentions Boston's charms—both of location and population—the point here is offer critical analysis of the massive tax breaks the company received to change locations. The details of the deal to bring the company to Boston include, according to Horowitz, "up to $25 million in property tax breaks, as much as $120 million for infrastructure to support the creation of a new corporate campus, and perhaps another $125 million to upgrade nearby roads and bridges."
The article then explains, point-by-point, the policy debate over the effectiveness of luring businesses between states with such lucrative incentives. One of the article's clear messages is not to overplay the importance of this deal to bring 800 employees to a Massachusetts economy that created 6,000 jobs a month in 2015:
Good or bad, though, it’s important to recognize that the GE deal is teeny, a small move in the broader game of economic development. GE’s arrival isn’t to going transform Massachusetts, and the tax incentives will barely make a ripple in the nearly $40 billion state budget.
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