Support free enterprise; don’t give Cabela’s free pass
Rapid City Journal • July 20, 2007
I support free market enterprise and competition. Nobody is guaranteed their business or profession will remain viable. If Cabela’s wants a store in Rapid City, do it on a fair playing field. If the Rapid City ... read more...

Guest Opinion: Trophy property marketing hastens loss of hunting ground
Billings Gazette • July 20, 2007
The accelerating loss of access to public wildlife, lands and waters feeds a growing sense of confinement for Montana's outdoor recreationists, hunters and anglers. Yes, we are free to drive the public roads ... read more ...

Tom Clementi column: Wisconsin priorities evident in distaste for 'covenant'
Appleton Post-Crescent • July 8, 2007
After returning from vacation, I used part of a day to catch up on my news reading not as much fun as catching fish, but interesting nonetheless. Noteworthy was a May 23 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ... read more ...

Lawmakers are wrong on big-box incentives
Beaufort Gazette • July 1, 2007
The S.C. General Assembly didn't take long last week to override plenty of Gov. Mark Sanford's vetoes, and its members made some mistakes. Some people think lawmakers did the right thing to reinstate a bill that offers ... read more ...

At last, a brake on giveaways
The Arizona Republic • June 30, 2007
In the face of stiff municipal opposition, Arizona lawmakers finally took a gutsy stand against city sales tax incentives. The legislation, passed in the final hours of the session, would impose penalties where it hurts cities the ... read more...

Corporate welfare alive and well in Rapid City
Rapid City Journal • June 29, 2007
You may have money coming from the City of Rapid City. You may apply at the city
administration building with the city council and mayor. Apply now, they are running a special. In addition to lower taxes you will ... read more ...

Cabela's Editorial Cartoon
The Daily Journal • June 26, 2007
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Sanborn: Refer Cabela's land deal to a public vote
Rapid City Journal • June 25, 2007
I can assure you that Cabela’s is a destination retailer. I know this because I have traveled to
both the Mitchell store and the Sidney, Neb., store, specifically to shop there. It’s fun to shop
there. A Rapid City Cabela’s ... read more ...

Should this bother us? RC Council votes to give Cabela's a carrot. A really, really expensive carrot.
SD War College Blog • June 19, 2007
I was reading the Rapid City Journal on-line today, and I noted the story on how Cabela's just got a massive incentive package to come to Rapid City, and how they're going to host a municipal visitor's center: read more ...

Good news - All is normal in this world
Indiana Economic Digest • June 18, 2007
At last, the professional basketball season is over. At last, the saga of the Sopranos is ended. The Cubs, the Cards, the White Sox, and the Reds are in their unusual states of disgrace. Our governor has announced ... read more ...

Got Cabela’s?
Mount Blog More • June 16, 2007
See Scott Aust’s Cabela’s story in today’s RCJ.
Then check out “Loan sought to pay Cabela’s” at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Then click to the Indianapolis Star story last week, “Outdoor enthusiast megastore poised ... read more ...

Biggest bang for buck
Grand Rapids News • Jan. 6, 2007
Regarding the current call for the expenditure of tax dollars to subsidize the Cabela's store in Walker, I would like to make the following three points ("Cabela's put's price on Walker," Press, Dec. 5): 1. In general, retailers ... read more ...

Town non-profits all deserve same break as Cabela's
East Hartford Gazette • Nov. 10, 2006
America is a prosperous nation, and Connecticut ranks among the most prosperous of the prosperous. One of the claims of this past political season was the payback per capita state citizens get for the taxes ... read more ...

The tax stops here
Spokesman Review • Nov. 9, 2006
I see in my morning paper, Nov. 3, that Cabela's might get some tax breaks if it builds a store in Post Falls ("Cabela's near deal with Post Falls"). The article is pretty hazy about what the value of these might be and ... read more ...

Sales Tax Solution
Bangor Daily News • Oct. 30, 2006
When it became evident Maine wasn’t going to roll over, Cabela’s Inc. withdrew its demand for a tax exemption and is apparently moving ahead with plans for a store in Scarborough. Although state tax officials were ready to ... read more ...

Being friendly to business but not giving away store
Sun Journal • Oct. 27, 2006
Maine has tax incremental financing. It has Pine Tree Zones. It also has community block grants, seed grants and WIRED grants. All these economic development tools, however, are weak in comparision to pure ... read more ...

We don't need Bass Pro to develop our waterfront
The Buffalo News • Oct. 19, 2006
As soon as the ink dried when the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority transferred acres of waterfront property to the Inner Harbor Development Corp., the outlook went from vapid to rapid. The assertion that Buffalo ... read more ...

How to avoid tax collecting: Twist arms
Idaho State Journal • Sept. 26, 2006
Coldwater Creek, a clothing company, is headquartered in Idaho, and it collects Idaho
sales taxes on its in-state online and catalog sales. Outdoor retailer which recently opened a large new store in Boise, ... read more ...

Our Views: Cause for care with subsidies
2theadvocate.com • Sep. 12, 2006
The legal battles over the taxpayer subsidies for giant retail stores may be near an end in the Louisiana Supreme Court. The dubious principle of giving government cash directly to private businesses remains ... read more ...

Secret Tax Policy
Boise Guardian • Aug. 31, 2006
If reports are true in the Daily Paper, Idaho has a secret tax system administered by a commission which grants sales tax breaks to some businesses, but not others.
Ken Dey, the reincarnated ... read more ...

DOES IT PAY?
The Patriot-News • Aug.29,2006
Over the last two years, Penn sylvania lost 554 jobs and Maryland 400 jobs, while Delaware gained 700 jobs and New Jersey added 84 jobs, all as a result of the actions of one employer. read more ...

Cabela's tax break is shameful, unfair
RGJ.com • Aug. 23, 2006
A Sunday Business section [Aug. 6] featured another glowing report regarding Cabela's hunting and fishing store that will be built near Boomtown. The story described a store that had opened recently in Glendale, Ariz., .. read more ...

See how they sucker us into tax increases
RGJ.com • July 21, 2006
Well, the local politicians think we have forgotten how they sucker the taxpayers into a tax increase. Yes, they are trying it again. They underfund the police and fire department so they have extra money to blow ... read more...

With Cabela's, big boys win but we lose
NWI Times • June 11, 2006
Bravo to Mark Nagdeman. Another letter decrying the arrival of Cabela's. The self-serving powers that be have seen to it that the protests of many people are going unnoticed -- or worse, ignored and tossed into the ... read more ...

Carrier has my vote
Times Daily • June 06, 2006
To the editor:
I'm proud to say that Scott Carrier is my city councilman. Should he ever decide to run for mayor, he certainly has my vote!
He appears to be the only council member who is willing to listen to his constituents ... read more ...

Politicians mixed up on Bass Pro, casino
Buffalo News • May 10, 2006
Toronto, Pittsburgh and Auburn all have Bass Pro stores. Yet, somehow, a new Bass Pro store in Buffalo is supposed to attract 4 million visitors every year? Where will these visitors be coming from? It stands to reason ... read more...

Too clever by far
Rome News-Tribune • Apr. 24, 2006
AS A GENERAL rule, state/ local "inducements" to land some major new job-creating, tax-producing private enterprise are not a bad idea so long as kept within reasonable bounds. To be sure, there will always be ... read more ...

Debate rages over funding for Bass Pro
Times Daily • Apr. 22, 2006
Whether to use public money to help lure a Bass Pro Shops store to Florence has been a subject of many debates.
I often hear people scoff at the idea of building a mega outdoors store as part of a ...readmore...

Our Views: 'Destination' for subsidies
2theadvocate.com • Apr. 20, 2006
The new industry-hunter hired by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber comes from a highly regarded stint at doing the same thing in Wichita, Kan. David Wood takes a realistic attitude toward business ... read more ...

Uneconomic
Retailer a poor choice for tax incentives
Lexington Daily Leader • Apr.12, 2006
Cabela's has a wonderful story. The sporting-goods retailer was founded, according
to its Web site, literally at a kitchen table.
A Nebraska man and his wife filled orders for fishing lures until the business ... read more ...

Effort to lure Bass Pro is a big waste of money
The Buffalo News • Apr.07, 2006
Why would I drive into Buffalo to shop at a Brass Pro? Even if it sold the ultimate fishing lure that guarantees I would catch fish, I still would not drive into Buffalo just to buy a fishing lure. Let's face it, there is not a single ... read more ...

Maybe a Hooters
Times Daily • Apr. 8, 2006
To the editor:
Recently, several columns have supported an energy museum to go on the Veteran's Park location. I have read most of the opinion pieces as best I could. (To be honest, I nodded off a few times reading a lengthy ... read more ...

Development begins with Skyway removal
The Buffalo News • Apr. 2, 2006
While I applaud Congressman Brian Higgins for his call to begin studies for the demolition of the Skyway, I am disturbed when I hear that this is something that is likely to happen in the distant future. What they should ... read more ...

House to sweeten pot to lure retailer
Piggyback sales tax dangled as incentive
Blade Columbus Bureau • Mar. 18, 2006
Sporting goods super-retailer Bass Pro Shops would get back 75 cents of every $1 paid in county sales taxes if it locates in Wood County - or anywhere else in Ohio - under a bill expected to clear the Ohio ... read more ...

Subsidies for big box will not pay off
The Daily Herald, Opinion • Feb. 14, 2006
Re: your coverage of Hoffman Estates’ proposed subsidy of at least $17 million for a
Cabela’s store, this would be a poor "catch.” Cabela’s, the nation’s largest outdoor
sporting goods purveyor ... read more ...

Curbing Corporate Welfare
Hometown Advantage • Jan. 9, 2006
Providing tax breaks and other kinds of subsidies to attract or retain businesses has become increasingly common over the last twenty years. Wal-Mart, for example, has received over $1 billion in public subsidies ... read more ...

Letter to the Editor
nwitimes.com • Dec.18, 2005
Do we in Lake County, land of possibly the highest property taxes in the nation, want a
Cabela's? Sure. Do the folks in Porter County want Bass Pro Shops? Why not? But I'll bet
the folks ... read more ...

Don't feed big-box bears; they'll only want more
Journal Sentinel • Sept. 17, 2005
Wisconsin has 15,057 fishful lakes and a camo-colored culture every fall. So why does a county have to pay a merchant of deer rifles and fishing rods to move here? read more ...

Cabela's continues to get all the breaks
Reading Eagle • Dec. 12, 2005
During the Christmas holiday season, I usually make some kind of gift recommendation for the bird watcher. But this year, I have to pause because of a convergence of events in northern Berks County, ... read more ...

Drawing Cabela's is good news, county subsidy isn't
Daily News • Oct. 25, 2006
Questions still remain about county money for Cabela's. Is $4.5 million too much tax money for the Cabela's project? Anyone in Washington County who has been following the Cabela's project knows ... read more ...

Forum: Wholesale use of retail TIFs
A development tool designed to serve blighted areas has been hijacked
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette • Oct. 13, 2002
Beyond the misuse of blight to get a TIF subsidy, the trend toward subsidizing retail establishments is extremely worrisome. There is only so much consumer spending power in a community. If new retailers ... read more ...

Washington County Gets Wacky
And: Wisconsin’s Prisoner Problem
Milwaukee Magazine • Oct. 4, 2005
Those wacky folks on the Washington County board have come up with a new and hilarious way to give away tax money. They are handing $4.5 million to Cabela’s Inc. to entice the company to build an outdoor ... read more ...

Free Enterprise Socialism
The Texas Observer • July 8, 2005
Attention, class. We’re now going to study the new and improved concept of “free enterprise,” which has been redefined by modern corporate executives as the availability of free government money to make ... read more ...

Cap Needed on Cities’ Developer Subsidies
Arizona Republic • Apr. 8, 2005
The circus has arrived in Mesa with performances now through May 17 featuring some truly jaw-dropping stunts. Marty DeRito, developer of the Riverview at Dobson project, is sponsoring ... read more ...