We talked indirectly about taxation last week when we identified where all our Federal, state, and local tax revenue is being sent. The point made for social Democrats----and should be a concern for conservative Republicans----
ALL OF OUR TAXATION IS GOING TO GLOBAL CORPORATE PROFIT CREATING INFRASTRUCTURE AND BUSINESSES THAT BENEFIT ONLY THE 1% AND THEIR 2%.
Watching the video of Reverend Billy we see at the end the conflict keeping the 99% from uniting against the 1%. The RoboBee researcher says----FOX NEWS DOESN'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT FUNDING TIED TO BEES----IT WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT FUNDING FOR A PRODUCT---ERGO, THE ROBOTIC BEE. Social Democrats from FDR want legislation to consider SOCIAL BENEFIT FIRST-----conservative Republicans want legislation to consider corporate profit first. Both groups see job creation, economic consumption fueling production as a GOOD THING.
The problem for conservative Republicans come when voters allow their national pols and a NATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE tell them what is good business policy locally. Before CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA our anti-trust and monopoly laws were being enforced---I know the lack of enforcement goes back a few decades earlier but this is when all that went on steroids. When that happened----our National Chamber of Commerce began working against state and local commerce as they were only focused on getting all market share to global corporations. That meant killing local economies. That is where we have been these few decades---both rural and city. Now all business development is simply startup innovation with the goal of folding any successful business right into a global corporation.
WHEN ALL THE TAXES WE PAY ARE GOING TO MAKE A 1% AND THEIR 2% RICHER THEN THOSE TAX RATES WILL GO HIGHER AND HIGHER AND HIGHER.
Then they find ways of calling taxes something else------fees, fines.
Baltimore citizens have been held captive for decades as Wall Street Baltimore Development controlled by global Johns Hopkins sucked every cent and asset from the city for their own profit and yes, we have too many taxes, fees, and fines all directed to global corporations and their profit/. Below you see one of them-----O'MALLEY IS A 1% WALL STREET GLOBAL CORPORATE POL-----NOT A DEMOCRAT----so stop blaming all this taxation on SOCIAL DEMOCRATS because it comes from far-right Clinton/Bush/Obama global corporate pols.
Tuesday, 16 April 2013
“Rain Tax” to Soak Maryland Taxpayers
Written by Michael Tennant
“Rain, rain, go away.” That’s what Marylanders are saying now that their state government has decided to tax them on the amount of rain that falls on developed portions of their property.
Last week the Maryland legislature passed and Gov. Martin O’Malley signed a law that taxes property owners on the basis of “the square footage of impervious surfaces on a property,” according to MarylandReporter.com. “The rationale is that roofs, driveways and parking lots create more potential for drainage problems and water contamination. Local jurisdictions are supposed to determine how much to charge per square foot, but in general, the size of the fee would depend on the size of the buildings and paved surfaces on a property.”
How will the government determine a property owner’s tax liability? “The amount of impervious surface a property owner has will be calculated using satellite and geographical information system technology,” reports Watchdog Wire.
Government property is exempt from the tax, but religious and nonprofit organizations are subject to it. A bill to exempt nonprofits — including environmental organizations — was proposed but failed.
MarylandReporter.com writes that Senate Republican Leader E.J. Pipkin noted the “irony of ironies”: Environmental groups tried to obtain an exemption from the tax that they themselves were pushing as a means of improving the environment. “He said that the groups’ stance was particularly galling, since much of the money raised through stormwater fees would benefit them by subsidizing conservation projects.”
IN MARYLAND, ALL GREEN TAX BREAKS AND THIS RAIN TAX REVENUE DESTINATION WOULD HAVE TAKEN THAT RAIN TAX REVENUE TO BUILD GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUS WATERFRONT PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT......
Perhaps the major reason that religious and nonprofit groups were not exempted from the tax is that they tend to own large buildings with expansive parking lots, precisely the types of impervious surfaces that will rake in big bucks for the government. Residential owners are expected to pay about $100 a year to start — a significant but not astronomical amount. Nonresidential owners, by contrast, are likely to be shelling out thousands of simoleons annually.
“But homeowners are going to pay the rain tax three times,” observes Gazette columnist Blair Lee. “Once, on their homes. A second time because commercial leases force tenants [to] pay the landlord’s property taxes, which the tenants will, then, pass on to their customers. And a third time as church members or supporters of nonprofit hospitals, private schools and charities.”
All told, Maryland residents will have to cough up an additional $300 million each year because of precipitation on their property, the conservative group Change Maryland estimates.
All of this is allegedly to comply with a 2010 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decree that the Old Line State reduce storm water runoff so as to shrink nitrogen and phosphorus levels in the Chesapeake Bay at a cost of $14.8 billion. However, as Watchdog Wire points out, “Virginia fought the EPA storm water mandate arguing that the agency overstepped its authority under the Clean Water Act.” Federal judge Liam O’Grady agreed, ruling in January that “stormwater runoff is not a pollutant, so EPA is not authorized to regulate it.” Maryland, therefore, could easily slough off the EPA’s order if its elected officials were so inclined.
There is thus good reason to suspect that the politicians in Annapolis simply used the EPA decree as an excuse to impose the rain tax. They have certainly been busy hiking taxes on various other pretexts in recent years. Change Maryland calculates that under Gov. O’Malley there have been 37 tax, fee, or toll increases costing Marylanders an additional $3.1 billion per year — among them a three-year, 6.25-percent tax on annual incomes in excess of $1 million that ended up reducing state revenues by $1.7 billion and likely contributing to a net loss of 31,000 residents.
That the law is, in Lee’s words, “kind of squishy” as to how the revenue from the rain tax will be spent only adds to suspicions that it has little to do with complying with the EPA’s directive.
Writes Lee:
It can be spent to build and maintain stream and wetland restoration projects. And, of course, a lot of it will go to “monitoring, inspection, enforcement, review of stormwater management plans and permit applications and mapping of impervious surfaces.” In other words, hiring more bureaucrats to administer the rain tax program.
It can also be spent on “public education and outreach” (whatever that means) and on “grants to nonprofit organizations” (i.e. to the greenies who pushed the tax through the various levels of government).
He notes that Montgomery County, which already has a rain tax, states that it “holds workshops and training events to help residents understand how various projects work. Projects such as rain gardens, conservation landscaping, rain barrels and cisterns, drywells and tree planting are then offered to be installed on properties that qualify, based on the County’s assessment.”
“So, I’m supposed to pay a rain tax so the county can train me how to plant a tree, which they’ll give me if, in its view, I qualify?” Lee asks. “Have we all gone mad?”
Not all of us have lost our minds yet. Even some Maryland Democrats realize what a bad idea the rain tax is.
One of them, Sen. Edward Kasemeyer, sponsored an amendment that would have delayed the tax for two years. “Kasemeyer argued it was hard to justify adding another expense to Marylanders’ budgets immediately after enacting a gas tax hike,” reports MarylandReporter.com. “At a certain point, he said, the impact on people outweighs the impact on the environment, and it is unreasonable to expect people to sacrifice so much for the sake of conservation.”
Likewise, Sen. Delores Kelley, also a Democrat, “said that she objected to the fees in spite of her conviction that it is vital to protect the Chesapeake Bay, because she feared causing economic hardship,” writes MarylandReporter.com.
“We need to save the planet,” she said, “but people can only do so much at one time.”
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First, designation of Baltimore in 1980s as an International Economic Zone bringing global corporate factories to our region meant back then CHESAPEAKE BAY would be destroyed. You do not have global industrial activity with a global Port of Baltimore and have any intention of protecting our bay. This is how we knew the RAIN TAX was not about saving the Chesapeake Bay. I also stated the wording of this bill excluded all the major corporate campuses having the most impermeable surface----again, we know RAIN TAX is not about environment. The media made clear the ones paying the most would be small businesses and individual homeowners. What did we say about NATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE? They create legislation that kills small businesses because they work to take all markets to global corporations.
THAT WAS THE GOAL OF THIS TAX BILL. MAXIMIZING PROFITS FOR GLOBAL CORPORATIONS.
All we heard was environmental bashing and how Democrats are TAX AND SPEND POLITICS. Global Wall Street pols are FAR-RIGHT folks!
The other issue with taxation is job creation. We expect community services, infrastructure, and job creation keeping a healthy economy. We talked last week about the goal of GLOBAL CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY being policy that maximizes profit and assures access to needed resources. Know what maximizes profits most?
LABOR COST REDUCTION AND NOTHING REDUCES LABOR COSTS MORE THAN ROBOTICS.
How does small business CHAMBER OF COMMERCE exist when all these are the goals of taxation spending? If citizens are not employed they are not spending money and VOILA----there goes that local and regional business competition. Global corporations don't care if unemployment in the US goes to 80%---they are selling to the world's 1% and their 2%.
HERE IS THE LATEST JOBS, JOBS, JOBS.
The first thing global corporations in International Economic Zones build is a resort for all their global business partners and business meetings. That is what UnderArmour is building. What kinds of jobs does this create? Third world development jobs like hotels and casinos. Exactly what Wall Street Baltimore Development has made our economy these few decades.
Work on Recreation Pier hotel could begin next month
Kevin Plank's Sagamore Development plans to convert Recreation Pier in Fells Point into a hotel. BHC Architects LLP is the designer. (Courtesy Sagamore Development and BHC Architects)
Natalie ShermanContact Reporter
Recreation Pier's transformation into a hotel coming soon.Sagamore Development Co. LLC, which is planning to turn Fells Point's historic Recreation Pier into a 128-room hotel, hopes to start work on the project next month, the project manager said Tuesday.
Sagamore, a development firm controlled by Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank and Chevy Chase developer Marc Weller, received approval Tuesday from the city's historic commission to start removing panels from the roof of the pier structure. The approval is a key step to allow the team to start some demolition and begin driving new piles into the water to support a new pier structure.
The main brick building, which fronts Thames Street, is be restored and converted into a hotel lobby, with a restaurant, bar and ballroom inside.
But the current pier, where the hotel rooms would go, is rotting, architect Todd Harvey of BHC Architects LLP said at a meeting of the city’s commission for historical and architectural preservation.
Sagamore plans to rebuild the structure, adding large windows and recreating the original dark wood siding with contemporary materials. The team has not yet decided what material to use for the side of the pier, Harvey said. The firm also plans to add a smaller, more modern third floor of hotels to the pier.
Under Armour CEO backs bid to turn Recreation Pier into hotel Sagamore hopes to start demolition next month and finish the project at the end of 2016, project manager Shawn Batterton said. Officials have said previously they expect the project to cost about $60 million.
“Our vision for the project is to really keep the historic essence of it and delveop a world class hotel that is grounded in the historic character and charm of this building and the Fells Point neighborhood,” Batterton said. “We’re trying to bring back the full glory of this building.”
Built in 1914, the brick building originally stored port cargo. It was used as a community center and television studio for “Homicide: Life on the Street.” It closed after the show went off the air in 1999.
New projects abound in Baltimore's challenging hotel market The developer is planning to widen the sidewalk in front of the building and add landscaping for the public.The radio antennae, which date to 1949, would be removed.
The hotel will offer all valet parking. Those arrangements are still in the works, Batterton said.
CHAP Chair Tom Liebel praised the project and said he wants to start discussions about declaring it a city landmark.
“We don’t want to impede the process for redevelopment but in the end we want to make sure that this property is properly celebrated as one of Baltimore’s true icons,” he said.
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This is the second issue surrounding use of taxes-----for decades we listen to citizens mad at corporate subsidy---and both Republicans and Democrats hate corporate welfare----and yet every election only the establishment candidates are allowed to participate in major election venues and media knowing these candidates are all going to continue this MASTER PLAN. So, Wall Street Baltimore Development 'labor and justice' organizations' will come out every time they start a new global corporate campus and yell about these same issues KNOWING the goals will bring no job creation for Baltimore citizens----will have any small business captured by outsourcing and subcontracting unable to earn profit, and the working class and poor displaced with receive absolutely no consideration.
ALL THESE LABOR AND JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS KNOW THIS----AND THEY ARE THE ONES SUPPORTING ELECTION FORUMS THAT ALLOW ONLY ESTABLISHMENT CANDIDATES TIED TO THIS DEVELOPMENT.
The point with TIF policy is this: The designation of Baltimore as an US Intenational Economic Zone under Trans Pacific Trade Pact has a goal of global corporations and the rich NOT PAYING TAXES. So, these corporate tax breaks disguised in lots of different ways are simply the end game for complete lack of taxation. This is why simply shouting against each TIF rather than the designation of Baltimore as an US International Economic Zone and against Trans Pacific Trade Pact is meaningless. If they pay any attention we know it will be a progressive BONE---MEANINGLESS.
Sagamore Development requests $535M TIF for Port Covington
Mar 9, 2016, 2:51pm EST Updated Mar 9, 2016, 3:05pm EST
Melody Simmons Reporter Baltimore Business JournalSagamore Development Co. LLC — the real estate arm of Under Armour Inc. CEO Kevin Plank — is requesting $535 million in tax increment financing from Baltimore City for the massive 266-acre redevelopment of Port Covington.
The financing would help pay for the project’s infrastructure, including roads, sewers, 40 acres of public park land, bike paths and 17 streets. The TIF would not cover work needed to overhaul the aging Hanover Street Bridge, which sits at the foot of Port Covington in South Baltimore.
During a presentation to the Baltimore’s Development Corp.’s project review and oversight committee on Wednesday, officials with Sagamore said a private investment of $5.5 billion is expected for the “vertical” portion of the project. Plans for the project include up to 13 million square feet of office, residential, retail and restaurants.
A new 50-acre waterfront campus for Under Armour is also part of the plans for Port Covington. But Sagamore officials noted Wednesday that the TIF will not pay for infrastructure on the Under Armour site.
TIFs require the selling of publicly-backed bonds to finance construction of infrastructure as well as parks and sidewalks, and the bonds are repaid with tax revenue from the project.
Sagamore is also seeking $573.6 million in support from the state and federal government, but a formal request has not yet been made.
Following Sagamore’s presentation, the meeting went to a closed-door session so city finance officials could discuss the impact a TIF of such size would have on the Baltimore's bond rating and debt load. The $535 million TIF would be one of the largest in the country.
BDC President Bill Cole said it’s too early to determine the impact. Another meeting of the committee is scheduled for next week.
"Our board really wants to do its due diligence," said Susan Yum, a spokeswoman for the BDC.
Sagamore Development officials said they aim to have the TIF for Port Covington addressed and voted on by the current administration and City Council in this calendar year before a new administration and new council is sworn in in early 2017.
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As we said, WE THE PEOPLE expect our taxes to come back to our communities for our benefit----whether services, jobs, or infrastructure. Global Wall Street and their pols need to PRETEND to give back something so they come up with things like CORPORATE CAMPUS 'PUBLIC PARKS' or 'LAND GRANT' affordable housing on corporate campuses making it seem as though the public or low-income citizens are being included ---when they are not.
First let's identify the issue with jobs. UnderArmour as Johns Hopkins has for decades build global corporate campuses overseas so they have global partners tied to construction, development, and global labor pools that will bring all that from overseas to Baltimore for these projects. That is what we have watched for these few decades of building East Baltimore, Downtown, Harbor East, and it is now heading towards University of Maryland Medical System and this UnderArmour campus. This is why all the job creation goes to global immigrant workers.
Next, global corporations have their own REAL ESTATE development corporations so all property on these global campuses will be OWNED BY THAT GLOBAL CORPORATION no matter how much they PRETEND the public will have access. Below you see they say this is public parks, biking trails----but this TIF tied to building all that must be connected to BONDS. This is where Wall Street simply manipulates the bond market and VOILA----all that land moves to global investment firms tied to the UnderArmour corporation. That is what will happen with the $1 billion school building bond as the bond market collapses with an economic crash coming soon.
WHEN THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BRINGS THE MANHATTAN INSTITUTE TO TALK ABOUT LAND TRUSTS AND THEY TIE THOSE TO BOND LEVERAGE---THEY ARE TELLING US THAT AFFORDABLE HOUSING REAL ESTATE WILL TRANSFER TO THAT GLOBAL CORPORATION.
'40 acres of public park land, bike paths and 17 streets'.
'TIFs require the selling of publicly-backed bonds to finance construction of infrastructure as well as parks and sidewalks, and the bonds are repaid with tax revenue from the project'.
We know Rawlings Blake wants 10,000 new Baltimore citizens and she openly states those will be immigrants. We know corporate campuses will hold a global 1% and their 2% and those workers will likely come from overseas. When we talk about taxes and jobs we do not want to disparage immigrant workers---we simply know the current citizens in Baltimore are paying or have paid those taxes and will not be included in any of these plans. It is the global headquarters in International Economic Zones that house the top executives while the next phase of expanding UnderArmour campus will be the global factories tied to the business. This will be where global factory labor pools will be housed and it will look nothing like this international resort.
Here are Under Armour's plans for a 50-acre waterfront HQ campus
Jan 28, 2016, 2:45pm EST Updated Apr 4, 2016, 10:50am EDT
Melody Simmons Reporter Baltimore Business JournalA 50-acre campus with a manmade urban lake and 3.9 million square feet of office, manufacturing and athletic space are the signature features of planned new global headquarters for Under Armour Inc. along the Port Covington waterfront.
The key aspects of the development are being made public for the first time on Thursday during a presentation to the city’s Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel.
A view from the water shows Under Armour's planned new campus in Port Covington.
A total of 10,000 employees are expected to work at the South Baltimore campus once it is built out over two decades, said Neil Jurgens, vice president for corporate real estate at Under Armour (NYSE:UA).
The new corporate campus is being designed by the Pittsburgh office of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. The firm has designed studio space at Pixar and Disney Studios as well as the iconic Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
Frank Grauman, a principal with the design firm, said Wednesday the Under Armour project will include environmental, spacial and urban characteristics that detail “Baltimore’s sense of itself” — both past and present.
The plans call for public access to the waterfront in certain areas of the secure corporate campus, a field house with indoor practice fields and a basketball court, a 100,000-square foot manufacturing hub and 2.9 million square feet of office space, some of it in a landmark tower to be built in the first phase by 2021.
The tower will likely showcase Under Armour’s interlocking UA logo to travelers on Interstate 95 located on the northern rim of the Port Covington site. Three towers as tall as 460 feet could be built, depending on the company's growth, architects told the design panel Thursday.
The campus will also include a 7,000-seat stadium on the waterfront where executives from Under Armour say possible local rivalries like the Loyola vs. Calvert Hall Turkey Bowl game and the City College-Baltimore Polytechnic football game could be played each year.
“We see this as transformative for the city and transformative for Under Armour,” Jurgens said during a press briefing Wednesday in a new office building for the company’s IT and finance departments in Port Covington. The 170,000-square-foot project sits in a completely overhauled former Sam’s Club. The space is now being called Building 37, named after company founder and CEO Kevin Plank’s jersey number on the University of Maryland football team. The site of a recently shuttered Wal-Mart store at Port Covington will also be used for the future campus.
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When UnderArmour presents an architectural drawing of what looks to be filled with smiling people strolling on public walkways and denies there will be gated communities with the public NOT being the ones strolling WE THE PEOPLE do not believe that for a second. We know this National Aquarium hold on land soon to become UnderArmour WAS THAT PUBLIC LAND----sold to citizens of Baltimore as the same goal----it will be a great waterfront public park. Yet, Baltimore handed THAT PUBLIC PROPERTY to UnderArmour and now we are to believe they will create different public access.
As someone who does not care if people want to live inside gated communities---this concern is that clearly the entire waterfront is being taken for such use.
'I am looking for nice private/gated communities inside or relatively near the Baltimore City. Could anyone help out?
There are several communities in and around Baltimore depending on your price range. In the city there are a few that that can be considered Gated and have private security services. They are Harbor Walk in Federal Hill/Inner Harbor, North Shore and Lighthouse Point in Canton'.
All of this matters for two reasons. The amount of taxpayer revenue going into these developments for decades binds city taxpayers to building this global corporate campus. As important is the waterfront access as all global corporate campuses have been given real estate along all our waterfront with this same promise. This speaks to quality of life----to oversight and accountability of our coastal waterways---and it is tied directly to our national/city security all of which comes from our tax revenue. We are paying global security corporations to provide security for a global corporate campus that mostly excludes those paying the taxes. One can look at International Economic Zones overseas to see how global corporate campuses have strong security and do not allow the general public on those campuses---
'West Covington Park, owned by the National Aquarium, was shown as part of the West Waterfront. So was Swann Park, one of two city owned parks that Sagamore has talked with the city about controlling in some fashion'.
Below you see where Hopkins did the same in building East Baltimore. They built hotels and accommodations tied to their global health systems tourism and yes, it is exclusive. We do not see it now but the Affordable Care Act was designed to create these private global health systems predatory and profit-driven that will exclude over 80% of US citizens. So, the communities around Hopkins East and Homewood will become closed to the public and as with UnderArmour will house a global 1% and their 2%.
YET, WE THE PEOPLE OF BALTIMORE HAVE BEEN PAYING ALL THAT TAX REVENUE BUILDING ALL THESE GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUSES AND WE CONTINUE TO PAY THOSE TAXES FOR A FEW DECADES WHILE THESE CORPORATE CAMPUSES ARE BEING BUILT----MOVING FORWARD SAYS BALTIMORE'S ESTABLISHMENT CANDIDATES----PUGH AND HOGAN ESPECIALLY.
Hopkins even owns the transportation companies tied to its global corporate campus.
Johns Hopkins Patient Services Accommodations List
1 mile from Inner Harbor. Quaint ... 0.25 miles from East Baltimore Campus ... Harbor East area with restaurants, CVS ..... Located in beautiful gated community. .... become filled and close. ... Discount coupons can be printed from the website.
Discount rates have been negotiated for Johns Hopkins guests at all the companies listed.
Please note rates do not include tax and are subject to change without notice.
The information compiled has been listed according to the rate offered to Johns Hopkins guests.
To make your reservation or for additional information, call Johns Hopkins Guest Services at 410-614-1911 or Toll Free 800-225-2201.
Rate Key: $ = $70 - $100 $$ = $100 - $150 $$$ = $150 - $200 $$$$ = 200 – Above Star Rating- # of Stars
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Here we see a typical overseas International Economic Zone development. We see the same global corporation coming in to secure land for a campus housing what for this industry is that core of executive surrounding what will become an extended global corporate campus ----the headquarters with international hotels and living quarters for visiting global partners then expanding that campus with what will be a global factory producing whatever patented products this corporation creates.
Johns Hopkins is doing the same----the entire city center will go beyond corporate campus headquarters to building global factories to produce whatever they patent. This is where Hopkins is extending into East Center Baltimore and this expansion will continue and engulf greater Baltimore. UnderArmour is preparing to do the same building north into West Center Baltimore and west to Patapsco in all likelihood.
Take Larry Hogan's CORE corporate campus that will probably meet UnderArmour's CENTER WEST campus and extend into Pimlico/Park Heights/Gwynn's Falls for example. These global corporate campuses are miles in size and all of Baltimore's tax revenue is being tied to bonds for decades to only these kinds of developments. Again, with any global corporate campus they already have global partners that will handle all construction, development, real estate business, and will use a global labor pool.
WE THE PEOPLE OF BALTIMORE PAY TAXES AND THEY CONTINUE TO BUILD GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUSES HAVING NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CITIZENS OF BALTIMORE FOR THESE FEW DECADES.
'Over the coming years, BASF is looking to invest a total of €10 billion towards expansion in the APAC region and setting up the innovation campus is part of the plan'.
What many find unattractive about these global corporate campuses including many who are forced into these global labor pools is that there never seems to be a permanent community as workers from white collar professionals to blue collar/factory are constantly moved around from one International Economic Zone and global corporation to another. Many Hopkins professional know this dynamic but just think of what this looks like on a greater regional level with each of these global corporate campuses surrounding city center are doing this same thing----there is no community connectivity or economy outside these corporate campus parameters.
BASF to set up 360 crore innovation campus in Navi Mumbai
Representational image (dna Research & Archives)
Ashish K Tiwari | Wed, 10 Dec 2014-05:57am , Mumbai , dna
Global chemical specialist BASF SE is expanding its research and development (R&D) presence in Asia Pacific and is setting up a greenfield 'Innovation Campus' at its Navi Mumbai plant.
Housing 300 scientists from India and abroad, the company will spend Rs 360 crore (€50 million) to make the facility operational by 2017.
Martin Brudermüller, vice chairman of the board of executive directors, BASF SE, and responsible for the Asia Pacific region, said the APAC region faces enormous challenges that the company addresses with innovation from chemistry. "We operate a strong global R&D network, which we will further strengthen with investments in innovation capacities in Asia Pacific. We will not only serve our customers in all industries in the region but also in other regions with global research projects that will be led out of Mumbai," said Brudermüller.
The Innovation Campus in Mumbai will be BASF SE's second such facility in the APAC region after Shanghai, China, and focus on areas such as crop protection, process development and polymer research. The facility will also help consolidate BASF India's R&D activities spread between two centres -- Chandivali and Navi Mumbai. "Both centres house close to 100 scientists and a considerable amount of work is already being undertaken between the two centres. In fact, we are in very advanced stages of filing a patent from the start-up R&D facility launched this year," said Raman Ramachandran, CMD, BASF India & head - South Asia.
Over the coming years, BASF is looking to invest a total of €10 billion towards expansion in the APAC region and setting up the innovation campus is part of the plan. The company has invested Rs 1,000 crore (€150 million) towards a large-scale chemical production complex at Dahej in Gujarat. This apart, investments have been made for setting up manufacturing facilities in Chennai (for automotive catalysts) and there are plans to set up another facility at Nellore in Andhra Pradesh to manufacture admixtures and powders for the construction industry.
"Of the total capex, 20% has already being disclosed and the balance will be invested gradually over the coming years. India can expect a good chunk of this €10 billion capex," said Brudermüller. He said that besides investing in the new R&D facility in Mumbai, the company is also planning to establish specialised research facilities in Asia Pacific in the areas of electronic materials, battery materials, catalysis, mining, water treatment, polymers and materials. "Step by step, Asia Pacific thus becomes an integral part of our global innovation power," he said.
By 2020, the company is targeting to €30 billion in worldwide sales with products being introduced to the market since 2011. To achieve this, BASF is developing the research organisation and bundling its competencies in three global platforms, with the headquarters of Advanced Materials & Systems Research based in the Asia Pacific region. The management had earlier said that it aims to locate 25% of its global R&D employees in Asia Pacific by 2020.
According to BASF's designated president of advanced materials & systems research, Harald Lauke, the new innovation campus in Mumbai will bring the best international scientists from India and other parts of the world together into the global BASF R&D Verbund. "Our global major research platforms, from beginning of 2015 namely Advanced Materials & Systems Research, Bioscience Research, and Process Research & Chemical Engineering, will be active in Mumbai," he said.
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This is the NGO partnered with Wall Street Baltimore Development making all the US cities deemed International Economic Zones with Trans Pacific Trade Pact policies. Each US city being transformed into an Asian International Economic Zone has these types of organizations filled with rich white men----always placing a person of color as a lead because----- citizens of color are going to get creamed. 1% Wall Street are rich white men taking what are heavily populated US cities having majority black and brown citizens----mostly working class and poor. When we have black and brown leaders like this stating BALTIMORE NEEDS JOB CREATION AND A 'WELCOMING' BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT----she is saying TAX FREE, REGULATION-FREE, GLOBAL LABOR POOL, FORGET THE ENVIRONMENT AS 'FRIENDLY'.
Now, if one has a city like Baltimore that has been a majority black who for decades were employed and paying taxes and even with the huge unemployment in black communities most families have paid their share, then to avoid unacceptable injustice we should see REAL employment opportunities coming. What we do see is when the working poor do get jobs they get to be treated just as those global immigrant workers----having wage theft, entire paychecks not appear and there will not be affordable housing to accommodate. If American white citizens keep thinking this is OK----it becomes OK for you, your children, and grandchildren too. This is why we are on the march to 1% Wall Street far-right authoritarian, militaristic MARXISM.
WE MUST STOP GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUS POLICIES AND REBUILD EACH COMMUNITY WITH ITS OWN ECONOMY TO PROTECT SOVEREIGN CITIZENS AND OUR FREEDOM.
' Moving forward, economic expansion and job creation need to remain top priorities, said Hill, the first African-American woman to serve as the committee's chair'.
I am glad ex-felons received good news on these fronts but we all know citizens with no records, with education, with good job histories are not getting those jobs and are represented in large numbers to that 50% unemployment stat.
SHAKE THAT RACE AND CLASS BALTIMORE and come together as a 99% vs that 1%
Job creation, economic expansion must be Baltimore's top priorities, GBC leaders say
Stephanie C. Hill
(Amy Davis / Baltimore Sun file)
Lorraine MirabellaContact ReporterThe Baltimore Sun
For continued recovery, Baltimore needs job creation and "welcoming" business environment, GBC leaders say.Leaders of the Greater Baltimore Committee called on Baltimore-area businesses to embrace initiatives to hire ex-offenders and city youths as ways to build on slow but steady progress since last year's unrest.
"This is a pivotal time for Baltimore City," Stephanie C. Hill, the committee's newly elected chair, told members at its annual meeting Monday. "But it is also an important time for all businesses and citizens in our area because an economy and perception of a region is only as strong as its central core."
The city, she said, is attracting millennials, high-tech companies and big projects such as the multibillion-dollar proposed Port Covington development of offices, stores, residences and parks, anchored by a headquarters for Under Armour. Moving forward, economic expansion and job creation need to remain top priorities, said Hill, the first African-American woman to serve as the committee's chair.
She highlighted steps the business group has taken since last spring: starting a fund to help riot-damaged businesses recover, increasing the number of hires in the city's Youth Works and private sector Hire One Youth programs to 8,000 young people and launching Coalition for a Second Chance to help ex-offenders overcome job barriers.
She told the more than 760 attendees at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore that it will be "imperative" that the committee quickly joins forces with the new mayor and City Council members who will be elected in November.
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We will take this week to look at taxation from a local viewpoint and know Baltimore as a US city may be more repressive in public policy but representative of all the kinds of tax policy concerns for WE THE PEOPLE.
The first thing we need to look at in understanding the extent of damage brought by global corporate subsidy is that 1% Wall Street global pols and media want to be sure data doesn't show actually HOW MUCH OF THIS IS HAPPENING. Corporate tax subsidy is like a Wall Street complex financial instrument----it is so circuitous and impossible to follow allowing for the history of extreme abuse with fraud and corruption. As well, when we see data given in media that tells citizens-----THIS DOES NOT AFFECT YOUR TAX RATE-----they are lying. Baltimore citizens have to listen to our local media and public officials constantly telling us ----don't worry, over a billion dollars in leveraged bond debt in Baltimore will not effect citizens' taxes. WE ALL KNOW IT WILL.
So, the number below is a national number----that much tax incentive comes just to the global health industry for example. We KNOW that figure is not right-----New York Times did this analysis.
A wonderful looking interactive chart shows us Maryland has a very small corporate subsidy total when in fact we know corporate subsidy in Maryland is as high as Texas----the highest in the nation. Just look at the corporate tax subsidy for UnderArmour's campus $535 million to see how that one subsidy super-sizes the entire State of Maryland corporate subsidy number----$554. Baltimore gives these tax breaks away like candy so we KNOW that data is skewed.
Maryland
Maryland spends at least $554 million per year on incentive programs, according to the most recent data available. That is roughly:
'To that end, his real estate firm, Sagamore, has asked the city of Baltimore for a record-breaking $535 million in so-called tax increment financing'.
Here is the usual attempt by Baltimore business people and media to tell us------THESE COPIOUS TAX BREAKS HAVE NO AFFECT ON A BALTIMORE CITIZENS' TAXES. I want to use this one corporation---UnderArmour as an example but this same pattern has occurred throughout Baltimore's Enterprise Zone development with global Johns Hopkins building a global empire from tax avoidance and subsidy to great detriment to our citizens.
Facts and myths about the Under Armour TIF
Here are the facts about the TIF for Under Armour's Port Covington plan.Despite its inaccuracies, I was pleased to read Mark Thistel's letter of March 18, "Baltimore can't afford Sagamore," because it provides an opportunity to correct a number of misconceptions about tax-increment financing, or TIF, and specifically the proposed TIF for public infrastructure in Port Covington.
Here are the answers to some important questions:
If you own a house or hold a job in Baltimore, how much of the tax that you pay will support a TIF?
Not one cent.
How much will your taxes increase to support the TIF?
Not one cent.
How much money sitting in the city's general fund today will go toward the TIF?
Not one cent.
How much money that could otherwise be spent today for schools, or in another neighborhood, will go toward the TIF?
Not one cent.
Is this a tax break or subsidy for Sagamore Development or Under Armour?
No — it is the opposite. Without new taxes paid by the owners within Port Covington, there will be no TIF. And taxes currently paid on the property will continue to flow to the city.
TIF dollars come from outside investors as a loan to the city to build public infrastructure, like sewer, water, streets and public parks. The funds are repaid by the new, increased property taxes from only within the re-development area, not from any other part of the city.
So when critics say that as taxpayers they did not expect to be presented with a bill for this project, I have good news. They have not and will not. The immediate net impact on a city taxpayer is zero. The long-term net impact for Baltimore is new jobs, massive private investment, and new tax revenues for the city.
Some have said that Under Armour, as a profitable corporation, should pay for its own headquarters. More good news — TIF funds will only be used for public infrastructure and will not be spent within the UA campus boundary or on any UA campus office building. This is worth repeating: Under Armour will pay in full to build its own internal infrastructure and headquarters.
An additional concern that has been raised is the city's creditworthiness to issue a large TIF bond, and some commentators have implied that the entire amount would come at once. This is not true. TIF bonds, in this case, will be issued over 25 years as infrastructure is phased in, and only as each phase becomes real.
The number $535 million seems extraordinary. However, this is a potentially extraordinary redevelopment, and more importantly that number only materializes over 25 years and only if it comes with $4.4 billion of new private investment, plus state and federal investments in Baltimore. And again, not one cent of the $535 million comes from the pocket of the Baltimore taxpayer.
A critical concern is the state education funding formula, and the potential loss of state funding for city schools based on a "phantom" increase in city wealth. This was a major concern for us, given our philanthropic focus on education. Fortunately, a bill has been introduced by Del. Maggie McIntosh and Sen. Nathaniel McFadden to fix this obviously flawed formula. The bill passed the Maryland House of Delegates 135-3 earlier this month, and it is expected to pass the Senate and become law this year.
Many expressing concern about Port Covington have acknowledged the vital importance of Under Armour in Baltimore. I am grateful for Mr. Thistel's comment that Under Armour is "the best thing to happen to Baltimore's corporate community in living memory." President Bill Clinton recently called the company "Baltimore's great shining jewel." The primary goal of Port Covington is to allow Under Armour's headquarters to continue to grow in Baltimore and not in some other city or state.
The larger redevelopment around Under Armour is being designed with public transit, good diverse jobs, environmental improvements, workforce development and neighborhood inclusion as top priorities. It cannot meet every unmet economic need of every family in Baltimore, but its impact will be considerable.
Under Armour is much more than an employer. The company and Kevin Plank personally have made extraordinary investments in Baltimore — millions of dollars for a recreation center (The Rec House) under construction in East Baltimore today, a new hotel, a distillery, new small businesses, sports fields, courts, computer labs, after-school programs, uniforms, scholarships and more. But, as Kevin often says, "we are just getting started." We have exciting and ambitious ideas ahead for the city.
We are proud to call Baltimore our home.
Tom Geddes, Baltimore
The writer is the CEO of Plank Industries and the executive director of The Cupid Foundation, Inc. He is a resident of Baltimore City.
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This is a thoughtful description of the scope of corporate tax subsidy but we can actually look further. Please take time to understand these issues from an international, national, and local level because when a 1% Wall Street global pol talks about public policy today they are talking what is happening GLOBALLY.
Corporate Income Tax Credits
Corporate Income Tax Credits
Tax credits are economic development subsidies that reduce a company's taxes by allowing it to deduct all or part of certain expenses from its income tax bill on a dollar for dollar basis.
Tax credits are usually granted for a particular kind of corporate activity a state wants to promote. Investment tax credits, which allow companies to subtract from their tax bill amounts spent on new facilities and/or equipment, are a boon for capital-intensive manufacturing industries. Research and development (R&D) credits are especially lucrative for pharmaceutical and high-tech companies.
Both the federal and state governments grant “job creation tax credits” to companies for hiring workers. In some cases, the credits are granted only for hiring disadvantaged workers. This is the case with many state enterprise zone programs and the federal Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC or “WAHT-see”). WOTC is designed to encourage employers to hire “hard to employ” workers such as ex-offenders, workers leaving welfare, recent food stamp recipients, low-income veterans or the disabled. WOTC is widely used by employers of low-wage, low-skill workers, especially in the fast food and retail sectors. Other tax credit programs give credits for hiring any new workers. Credits typically range from $1,000 to $5,000 per worker.
The theory underlying these credits is that certain types of corporate investments are crucial for boosting development and therefore deserve special tax treatment.
How tax credits work
Corporations pay federal income tax on their profits, and most states levy a corporate income tax as well (sometimes called a business franchise tax). The tax collected by each state is the state's tax rate multiplied by the company's in-state taxable profits. For companies that do business in more than one state, the state calculates the amount of taxable profits using an apportionment formula. Typically, the formula includes the shares of a company's nationwide payroll, assets, and sales that are in a particular state (learn more about tax formulas).
Tax credit programs are created by laws passed by federal and state legislatures. Tax credits are entitlement subsidies. Unlike discretionary subsidies, which are individually negotiated between a company and a taxing jurisdiction, tax credits are available to any company that meets the program's criteria. Those criteria may restrict the credit to companies in a particular industry, or to companies that invest over a certain amount of money, locate in a certain part of a state, hire disadvantaged workers, pay a certain wage, etc.
While tax credits cannot be negotiated on a case-by-case basis with companies since they must be incorporated into a state's tax code, many companies successfully lobby for the creation of tax credits tailored to their profiles. In several recent high-profile development deals, state legislatures have created new tax credits to subsidize specific companies considering locating in the area.
Tax credits are different than tax deductions. A tax deduction is subtracted from a company's income before the amount of tax is calculated, lessening the amount of profit subject to taxation. Say a company spends $5,000 on new equipment. If a state allows the company to deduct that amount from its profits, the company subtracts $5,000 from its profits; if the income tax rate is 10 percent, the company saves $500 in taxes.
Tax credits are subtracted from the amount of tax owed rather than from a company's income. In the example above, if the state allows the company to take a credit equal to the amount it spent on equipment, the company saves $5,000 in taxes. (Tax abatements, which typically reduce property taxes, are similar to credits in that they knock off a percentage of a company's final tax bill -- for example, a company receiving a 50-percent property tax abatement pays only half the property tax it would otherwise owe).
Companies claim tax credits when they file their tax return. Sometimes companies are required to submit documentation proving they fulfilled the terms of the credit; other times states rely on sporadic audits to confirm compliance. Many tax credits allow companies to claim the amount, or a percentage of the amount, of investment up to a certain dollar figure. Credits for job creation often set a specific figure a company can claim for each qualified job created.
Some states' credits are so generous that the credit wipes out the company's entire state income tax bill. If a company's credit exceeds its tax bill for the year, the company is often allowed to “carry forward” the leftover credits for use in future years. In many states, it is not uncommon for a company building a new facility to pay no state income taxes at all on the plant's profits for years.
Accountability and outcomes
Critics of tax credits question whether tax credits are effective in increasing the activities they attempt to promote, or whether those activities would occur regardless. For instance, the definition of what exactly “research and development” constitutes is often quite vague and may be stretched to include many activities that appear to be routine functions rather than a search for new knowledge, products, or processes. Even with true R&D, there is no assurance that the credited activity would not have been made in the absence of the credit. Similar issues arise with regard to job creation and investment credits.
These are important questions to ask, since tax credits are extremely expensive and often last for years. Among all the development subsidies states offer, tax credits are the most harmful to state budgets. Tax credits often do not undergo the same scrutiny in the state budgeting process as do direct economic development expenditures. Rather than necessitating an allocation of funds, tax credits take the form of forgone tax revenue. In the end, tax spending has the same effect as direct spending -- reducing the money available for state services and programs. Most states do not tally the amount of revenue lost to tax credits, making them one of the less accountable subsidies.
Some programs are better than others at targeting credits to companies that create good jobs and/or invest in development that would not otherwise occur. Requirements such as wage, healthcare, environmental, and local hiring standards help to ensure that companies subsidized with public money have a measurable, positive impact on local communities.
Most tax credits are structured so that companies receive the subsidy only after meeting the program's criteria – that is, they are paid only for what they actually do, not what they plan to do. This is a smart way to structure a subsidy, but it still requires state governments to be vigilant in monitoring and enforcing the provisions of tax credits laws. Many (but not all) tax credit laws contain reporting requirements detailing what documents a company must collect or complete to demonstrate compliance. The better laws also contain clawbacks that empower the state to reclaim the amount of the credit, with interest or penalties, if the company is found to be noncompliant with the terms of the program.
Researching tax credits
Corporate income tax credits are the most poorly disclosed tax breaks. No state requires corporate tax returns to be made public, and very few states have any kind of company-specific disclosure data that reveals how much a company didn't pay because of a tax credit.
Since you can't see a company's state tax return, you will probably have to make a good-faith estimate of the value of a tax credit to a company, using the information available. If the company is publicly traded, there should be a mention of the credit in the financial statements it files with the Securities and Exchange Commission and which are made public through the EDGAR system on the SEC website (www.sec.gov). See, for example the 10-K annual report.
Otherwise, state development departments may be able to estimate the amount of the credit. If the deal you are researching is large enough to warrant media coverage, there may be published estimates of the credit amount. Information on Work Opportunity Tax Credits is sometimes available from state WOTC coordinators. However, in many states, the coordinators do not collect comprehensive data, or else have a policy of not divulging the information.
Some states publish tax expenditure budgets that compile the total amount of money the state lost to each kind of corporate tax credit without company-specific information.
ALL OF OUR TAXATION IS GOING TO GLOBAL CORPORATE PROFIT CREATING INFRASTRUCTURE AND BUSINESSES THAT BENEFIT ONLY THE 1% AND THEIR 2%.
Watching the video of Reverend Billy we see at the end the conflict keeping the 99% from uniting against the 1%. The RoboBee researcher says----FOX NEWS DOESN'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT FUNDING TIED TO BEES----IT WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT FUNDING FOR A PRODUCT---ERGO, THE ROBOTIC BEE. Social Democrats from FDR want legislation to consider SOCIAL BENEFIT FIRST-----conservative Republicans want legislation to consider corporate profit first. Both groups see job creation, economic consumption fueling production as a GOOD THING.
The problem for conservative Republicans come when voters allow their national pols and a NATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE tell them what is good business policy locally. Before CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA our anti-trust and monopoly laws were being enforced---I know the lack of enforcement goes back a few decades earlier but this is when all that went on steroids. When that happened----our National Chamber of Commerce began working against state and local commerce as they were only focused on getting all market share to global corporations. That meant killing local economies. That is where we have been these few decades---both rural and city. Now all business development is simply startup innovation with the goal of folding any successful business right into a global corporation.
WHEN ALL THE TAXES WE PAY ARE GOING TO MAKE A 1% AND THEIR 2% RICHER THEN THOSE TAX RATES WILL GO HIGHER AND HIGHER AND HIGHER.
Then they find ways of calling taxes something else------fees, fines.
Baltimore citizens have been held captive for decades as Wall Street Baltimore Development controlled by global Johns Hopkins sucked every cent and asset from the city for their own profit and yes, we have too many taxes, fees, and fines all directed to global corporations and their profit/. Below you see one of them-----O'MALLEY IS A 1% WALL STREET GLOBAL CORPORATE POL-----NOT A DEMOCRAT----so stop blaming all this taxation on SOCIAL DEMOCRATS because it comes from far-right Clinton/Bush/Obama global corporate pols.
Tuesday, 16 April 2013
“Rain Tax” to Soak Maryland Taxpayers
Written by Michael Tennant
“Rain, rain, go away.” That’s what Marylanders are saying now that their state government has decided to tax them on the amount of rain that falls on developed portions of their property.
Last week the Maryland legislature passed and Gov. Martin O’Malley signed a law that taxes property owners on the basis of “the square footage of impervious surfaces on a property,” according to MarylandReporter.com. “The rationale is that roofs, driveways and parking lots create more potential for drainage problems and water contamination. Local jurisdictions are supposed to determine how much to charge per square foot, but in general, the size of the fee would depend on the size of the buildings and paved surfaces on a property.”
How will the government determine a property owner’s tax liability? “The amount of impervious surface a property owner has will be calculated using satellite and geographical information system technology,” reports Watchdog Wire.
Government property is exempt from the tax, but religious and nonprofit organizations are subject to it. A bill to exempt nonprofits — including environmental organizations — was proposed but failed.
MarylandReporter.com writes that Senate Republican Leader E.J. Pipkin noted the “irony of ironies”: Environmental groups tried to obtain an exemption from the tax that they themselves were pushing as a means of improving the environment. “He said that the groups’ stance was particularly galling, since much of the money raised through stormwater fees would benefit them by subsidizing conservation projects.”
IN MARYLAND, ALL GREEN TAX BREAKS AND THIS RAIN TAX REVENUE DESTINATION WOULD HAVE TAKEN THAT RAIN TAX REVENUE TO BUILD GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUS WATERFRONT PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT......
Perhaps the major reason that religious and nonprofit groups were not exempted from the tax is that they tend to own large buildings with expansive parking lots, precisely the types of impervious surfaces that will rake in big bucks for the government. Residential owners are expected to pay about $100 a year to start — a significant but not astronomical amount. Nonresidential owners, by contrast, are likely to be shelling out thousands of simoleons annually.
“But homeowners are going to pay the rain tax three times,” observes Gazette columnist Blair Lee. “Once, on their homes. A second time because commercial leases force tenants [to] pay the landlord’s property taxes, which the tenants will, then, pass on to their customers. And a third time as church members or supporters of nonprofit hospitals, private schools and charities.”
All told, Maryland residents will have to cough up an additional $300 million each year because of precipitation on their property, the conservative group Change Maryland estimates.
All of this is allegedly to comply with a 2010 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decree that the Old Line State reduce storm water runoff so as to shrink nitrogen and phosphorus levels in the Chesapeake Bay at a cost of $14.8 billion. However, as Watchdog Wire points out, “Virginia fought the EPA storm water mandate arguing that the agency overstepped its authority under the Clean Water Act.” Federal judge Liam O’Grady agreed, ruling in January that “stormwater runoff is not a pollutant, so EPA is not authorized to regulate it.” Maryland, therefore, could easily slough off the EPA’s order if its elected officials were so inclined.
There is thus good reason to suspect that the politicians in Annapolis simply used the EPA decree as an excuse to impose the rain tax. They have certainly been busy hiking taxes on various other pretexts in recent years. Change Maryland calculates that under Gov. O’Malley there have been 37 tax, fee, or toll increases costing Marylanders an additional $3.1 billion per year — among them a three-year, 6.25-percent tax on annual incomes in excess of $1 million that ended up reducing state revenues by $1.7 billion and likely contributing to a net loss of 31,000 residents.
That the law is, in Lee’s words, “kind of squishy” as to how the revenue from the rain tax will be spent only adds to suspicions that it has little to do with complying with the EPA’s directive.
Writes Lee:
It can be spent to build and maintain stream and wetland restoration projects. And, of course, a lot of it will go to “monitoring, inspection, enforcement, review of stormwater management plans and permit applications and mapping of impervious surfaces.” In other words, hiring more bureaucrats to administer the rain tax program.
It can also be spent on “public education and outreach” (whatever that means) and on “grants to nonprofit organizations” (i.e. to the greenies who pushed the tax through the various levels of government).
He notes that Montgomery County, which already has a rain tax, states that it “holds workshops and training events to help residents understand how various projects work. Projects such as rain gardens, conservation landscaping, rain barrels and cisterns, drywells and tree planting are then offered to be installed on properties that qualify, based on the County’s assessment.”
“So, I’m supposed to pay a rain tax so the county can train me how to plant a tree, which they’ll give me if, in its view, I qualify?” Lee asks. “Have we all gone mad?”
Not all of us have lost our minds yet. Even some Maryland Democrats realize what a bad idea the rain tax is.
One of them, Sen. Edward Kasemeyer, sponsored an amendment that would have delayed the tax for two years. “Kasemeyer argued it was hard to justify adding another expense to Marylanders’ budgets immediately after enacting a gas tax hike,” reports MarylandReporter.com. “At a certain point, he said, the impact on people outweighs the impact on the environment, and it is unreasonable to expect people to sacrifice so much for the sake of conservation.”
Likewise, Sen. Delores Kelley, also a Democrat, “said that she objected to the fees in spite of her conviction that it is vital to protect the Chesapeake Bay, because she feared causing economic hardship,” writes MarylandReporter.com.
“We need to save the planet,” she said, “but people can only do so much at one time.”
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First, designation of Baltimore in 1980s as an International Economic Zone bringing global corporate factories to our region meant back then CHESAPEAKE BAY would be destroyed. You do not have global industrial activity with a global Port of Baltimore and have any intention of protecting our bay. This is how we knew the RAIN TAX was not about saving the Chesapeake Bay. I also stated the wording of this bill excluded all the major corporate campuses having the most impermeable surface----again, we know RAIN TAX is not about environment. The media made clear the ones paying the most would be small businesses and individual homeowners. What did we say about NATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE? They create legislation that kills small businesses because they work to take all markets to global corporations.
THAT WAS THE GOAL OF THIS TAX BILL. MAXIMIZING PROFITS FOR GLOBAL CORPORATIONS.
All we heard was environmental bashing and how Democrats are TAX AND SPEND POLITICS. Global Wall Street pols are FAR-RIGHT folks!
The other issue with taxation is job creation. We expect community services, infrastructure, and job creation keeping a healthy economy. We talked last week about the goal of GLOBAL CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY being policy that maximizes profit and assures access to needed resources. Know what maximizes profits most?
LABOR COST REDUCTION AND NOTHING REDUCES LABOR COSTS MORE THAN ROBOTICS.
How does small business CHAMBER OF COMMERCE exist when all these are the goals of taxation spending? If citizens are not employed they are not spending money and VOILA----there goes that local and regional business competition. Global corporations don't care if unemployment in the US goes to 80%---they are selling to the world's 1% and their 2%.
HERE IS THE LATEST JOBS, JOBS, JOBS.
The first thing global corporations in International Economic Zones build is a resort for all their global business partners and business meetings. That is what UnderArmour is building. What kinds of jobs does this create? Third world development jobs like hotels and casinos. Exactly what Wall Street Baltimore Development has made our economy these few decades.
Work on Recreation Pier hotel could begin next month
Kevin Plank's Sagamore Development plans to convert Recreation Pier in Fells Point into a hotel. BHC Architects LLP is the designer. (Courtesy Sagamore Development and BHC Architects)
Natalie ShermanContact Reporter
Recreation Pier's transformation into a hotel coming soon.Sagamore Development Co. LLC, which is planning to turn Fells Point's historic Recreation Pier into a 128-room hotel, hopes to start work on the project next month, the project manager said Tuesday.
Sagamore, a development firm controlled by Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank and Chevy Chase developer Marc Weller, received approval Tuesday from the city's historic commission to start removing panels from the roof of the pier structure. The approval is a key step to allow the team to start some demolition and begin driving new piles into the water to support a new pier structure.
The main brick building, which fronts Thames Street, is be restored and converted into a hotel lobby, with a restaurant, bar and ballroom inside.
But the current pier, where the hotel rooms would go, is rotting, architect Todd Harvey of BHC Architects LLP said at a meeting of the city’s commission for historical and architectural preservation.
Sagamore plans to rebuild the structure, adding large windows and recreating the original dark wood siding with contemporary materials. The team has not yet decided what material to use for the side of the pier, Harvey said. The firm also plans to add a smaller, more modern third floor of hotels to the pier.
Under Armour CEO backs bid to turn Recreation Pier into hotel Sagamore hopes to start demolition next month and finish the project at the end of 2016, project manager Shawn Batterton said. Officials have said previously they expect the project to cost about $60 million.
“Our vision for the project is to really keep the historic essence of it and delveop a world class hotel that is grounded in the historic character and charm of this building and the Fells Point neighborhood,” Batterton said. “We’re trying to bring back the full glory of this building.”
Built in 1914, the brick building originally stored port cargo. It was used as a community center and television studio for “Homicide: Life on the Street.” It closed after the show went off the air in 1999.
New projects abound in Baltimore's challenging hotel market The developer is planning to widen the sidewalk in front of the building and add landscaping for the public.The radio antennae, which date to 1949, would be removed.
The hotel will offer all valet parking. Those arrangements are still in the works, Batterton said.
CHAP Chair Tom Liebel praised the project and said he wants to start discussions about declaring it a city landmark.
“We don’t want to impede the process for redevelopment but in the end we want to make sure that this property is properly celebrated as one of Baltimore’s true icons,” he said.
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This is the second issue surrounding use of taxes-----for decades we listen to citizens mad at corporate subsidy---and both Republicans and Democrats hate corporate welfare----and yet every election only the establishment candidates are allowed to participate in major election venues and media knowing these candidates are all going to continue this MASTER PLAN. So, Wall Street Baltimore Development 'labor and justice' organizations' will come out every time they start a new global corporate campus and yell about these same issues KNOWING the goals will bring no job creation for Baltimore citizens----will have any small business captured by outsourcing and subcontracting unable to earn profit, and the working class and poor displaced with receive absolutely no consideration.
ALL THESE LABOR AND JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS KNOW THIS----AND THEY ARE THE ONES SUPPORTING ELECTION FORUMS THAT ALLOW ONLY ESTABLISHMENT CANDIDATES TIED TO THIS DEVELOPMENT.
The point with TIF policy is this: The designation of Baltimore as an US Intenational Economic Zone under Trans Pacific Trade Pact has a goal of global corporations and the rich NOT PAYING TAXES. So, these corporate tax breaks disguised in lots of different ways are simply the end game for complete lack of taxation. This is why simply shouting against each TIF rather than the designation of Baltimore as an US International Economic Zone and against Trans Pacific Trade Pact is meaningless. If they pay any attention we know it will be a progressive BONE---MEANINGLESS.
Sagamore Development requests $535M TIF for Port Covington
Mar 9, 2016, 2:51pm EST Updated Mar 9, 2016, 3:05pm EST
Melody Simmons Reporter Baltimore Business JournalSagamore Development Co. LLC — the real estate arm of Under Armour Inc. CEO Kevin Plank — is requesting $535 million in tax increment financing from Baltimore City for the massive 266-acre redevelopment of Port Covington.
The financing would help pay for the project’s infrastructure, including roads, sewers, 40 acres of public park land, bike paths and 17 streets. The TIF would not cover work needed to overhaul the aging Hanover Street Bridge, which sits at the foot of Port Covington in South Baltimore.
During a presentation to the Baltimore’s Development Corp.’s project review and oversight committee on Wednesday, officials with Sagamore said a private investment of $5.5 billion is expected for the “vertical” portion of the project. Plans for the project include up to 13 million square feet of office, residential, retail and restaurants.
A new 50-acre waterfront campus for Under Armour is also part of the plans for Port Covington. But Sagamore officials noted Wednesday that the TIF will not pay for infrastructure on the Under Armour site.
TIFs require the selling of publicly-backed bonds to finance construction of infrastructure as well as parks and sidewalks, and the bonds are repaid with tax revenue from the project.
Sagamore is also seeking $573.6 million in support from the state and federal government, but a formal request has not yet been made.
Following Sagamore’s presentation, the meeting went to a closed-door session so city finance officials could discuss the impact a TIF of such size would have on the Baltimore's bond rating and debt load. The $535 million TIF would be one of the largest in the country.
BDC President Bill Cole said it’s too early to determine the impact. Another meeting of the committee is scheduled for next week.
"Our board really wants to do its due diligence," said Susan Yum, a spokeswoman for the BDC.
Sagamore Development officials said they aim to have the TIF for Port Covington addressed and voted on by the current administration and City Council in this calendar year before a new administration and new council is sworn in in early 2017.
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As we said, WE THE PEOPLE expect our taxes to come back to our communities for our benefit----whether services, jobs, or infrastructure. Global Wall Street and their pols need to PRETEND to give back something so they come up with things like CORPORATE CAMPUS 'PUBLIC PARKS' or 'LAND GRANT' affordable housing on corporate campuses making it seem as though the public or low-income citizens are being included ---when they are not.
First let's identify the issue with jobs. UnderArmour as Johns Hopkins has for decades build global corporate campuses overseas so they have global partners tied to construction, development, and global labor pools that will bring all that from overseas to Baltimore for these projects. That is what we have watched for these few decades of building East Baltimore, Downtown, Harbor East, and it is now heading towards University of Maryland Medical System and this UnderArmour campus. This is why all the job creation goes to global immigrant workers.
Next, global corporations have their own REAL ESTATE development corporations so all property on these global campuses will be OWNED BY THAT GLOBAL CORPORATION no matter how much they PRETEND the public will have access. Below you see they say this is public parks, biking trails----but this TIF tied to building all that must be connected to BONDS. This is where Wall Street simply manipulates the bond market and VOILA----all that land moves to global investment firms tied to the UnderArmour corporation. That is what will happen with the $1 billion school building bond as the bond market collapses with an economic crash coming soon.
WHEN THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BRINGS THE MANHATTAN INSTITUTE TO TALK ABOUT LAND TRUSTS AND THEY TIE THOSE TO BOND LEVERAGE---THEY ARE TELLING US THAT AFFORDABLE HOUSING REAL ESTATE WILL TRANSFER TO THAT GLOBAL CORPORATION.
'40 acres of public park land, bike paths and 17 streets'.
'TIFs require the selling of publicly-backed bonds to finance construction of infrastructure as well as parks and sidewalks, and the bonds are repaid with tax revenue from the project'.
We know Rawlings Blake wants 10,000 new Baltimore citizens and she openly states those will be immigrants. We know corporate campuses will hold a global 1% and their 2% and those workers will likely come from overseas. When we talk about taxes and jobs we do not want to disparage immigrant workers---we simply know the current citizens in Baltimore are paying or have paid those taxes and will not be included in any of these plans. It is the global headquarters in International Economic Zones that house the top executives while the next phase of expanding UnderArmour campus will be the global factories tied to the business. This will be where global factory labor pools will be housed and it will look nothing like this international resort.
Here are Under Armour's plans for a 50-acre waterfront HQ campus
Jan 28, 2016, 2:45pm EST Updated Apr 4, 2016, 10:50am EDT
Melody Simmons Reporter Baltimore Business JournalA 50-acre campus with a manmade urban lake and 3.9 million square feet of office, manufacturing and athletic space are the signature features of planned new global headquarters for Under Armour Inc. along the Port Covington waterfront.
The key aspects of the development are being made public for the first time on Thursday during a presentation to the city’s Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel.
A view from the water shows Under Armour's planned new campus in Port Covington.
A total of 10,000 employees are expected to work at the South Baltimore campus once it is built out over two decades, said Neil Jurgens, vice president for corporate real estate at Under Armour (NYSE:UA).
The new corporate campus is being designed by the Pittsburgh office of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. The firm has designed studio space at Pixar and Disney Studios as well as the iconic Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
Frank Grauman, a principal with the design firm, said Wednesday the Under Armour project will include environmental, spacial and urban characteristics that detail “Baltimore’s sense of itself” — both past and present.
The plans call for public access to the waterfront in certain areas of the secure corporate campus, a field house with indoor practice fields and a basketball court, a 100,000-square foot manufacturing hub and 2.9 million square feet of office space, some of it in a landmark tower to be built in the first phase by 2021.
The tower will likely showcase Under Armour’s interlocking UA logo to travelers on Interstate 95 located on the northern rim of the Port Covington site. Three towers as tall as 460 feet could be built, depending on the company's growth, architects told the design panel Thursday.
The campus will also include a 7,000-seat stadium on the waterfront where executives from Under Armour say possible local rivalries like the Loyola vs. Calvert Hall Turkey Bowl game and the City College-Baltimore Polytechnic football game could be played each year.
“We see this as transformative for the city and transformative for Under Armour,” Jurgens said during a press briefing Wednesday in a new office building for the company’s IT and finance departments in Port Covington. The 170,000-square-foot project sits in a completely overhauled former Sam’s Club. The space is now being called Building 37, named after company founder and CEO Kevin Plank’s jersey number on the University of Maryland football team. The site of a recently shuttered Wal-Mart store at Port Covington will also be used for the future campus.
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When UnderArmour presents an architectural drawing of what looks to be filled with smiling people strolling on public walkways and denies there will be gated communities with the public NOT being the ones strolling WE THE PEOPLE do not believe that for a second. We know this National Aquarium hold on land soon to become UnderArmour WAS THAT PUBLIC LAND----sold to citizens of Baltimore as the same goal----it will be a great waterfront public park. Yet, Baltimore handed THAT PUBLIC PROPERTY to UnderArmour and now we are to believe they will create different public access.
As someone who does not care if people want to live inside gated communities---this concern is that clearly the entire waterfront is being taken for such use.
'I am looking for nice private/gated communities inside or relatively near the Baltimore City. Could anyone help out?
There are several communities in and around Baltimore depending on your price range. In the city there are a few that that can be considered Gated and have private security services. They are Harbor Walk in Federal Hill/Inner Harbor, North Shore and Lighthouse Point in Canton'.
All of this matters for two reasons. The amount of taxpayer revenue going into these developments for decades binds city taxpayers to building this global corporate campus. As important is the waterfront access as all global corporate campuses have been given real estate along all our waterfront with this same promise. This speaks to quality of life----to oversight and accountability of our coastal waterways---and it is tied directly to our national/city security all of which comes from our tax revenue. We are paying global security corporations to provide security for a global corporate campus that mostly excludes those paying the taxes. One can look at International Economic Zones overseas to see how global corporate campuses have strong security and do not allow the general public on those campuses---
'West Covington Park, owned by the National Aquarium, was shown as part of the West Waterfront. So was Swann Park, one of two city owned parks that Sagamore has talked with the city about controlling in some fashion'.
Below you see where Hopkins did the same in building East Baltimore. They built hotels and accommodations tied to their global health systems tourism and yes, it is exclusive. We do not see it now but the Affordable Care Act was designed to create these private global health systems predatory and profit-driven that will exclude over 80% of US citizens. So, the communities around Hopkins East and Homewood will become closed to the public and as with UnderArmour will house a global 1% and their 2%.
YET, WE THE PEOPLE OF BALTIMORE HAVE BEEN PAYING ALL THAT TAX REVENUE BUILDING ALL THESE GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUSES AND WE CONTINUE TO PAY THOSE TAXES FOR A FEW DECADES WHILE THESE CORPORATE CAMPUSES ARE BEING BUILT----MOVING FORWARD SAYS BALTIMORE'S ESTABLISHMENT CANDIDATES----PUGH AND HOGAN ESPECIALLY.
Hopkins even owns the transportation companies tied to its global corporate campus.
Johns Hopkins Patient Services Accommodations List
1 mile from Inner Harbor. Quaint ... 0.25 miles from East Baltimore Campus ... Harbor East area with restaurants, CVS ..... Located in beautiful gated community. .... become filled and close. ... Discount coupons can be printed from the website.
Discount rates have been negotiated for Johns Hopkins guests at all the companies listed.
Please note rates do not include tax and are subject to change without notice.
The information compiled has been listed according to the rate offered to Johns Hopkins guests.
To make your reservation or for additional information, call Johns Hopkins Guest Services at 410-614-1911 or Toll Free 800-225-2201.
Rate Key: $ = $70 - $100 $$ = $100 - $150 $$$ = $150 - $200 $$$$ = 200 – Above Star Rating- # of Stars
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Here we see a typical overseas International Economic Zone development. We see the same global corporation coming in to secure land for a campus housing what for this industry is that core of executive surrounding what will become an extended global corporate campus ----the headquarters with international hotels and living quarters for visiting global partners then expanding that campus with what will be a global factory producing whatever patented products this corporation creates.
Johns Hopkins is doing the same----the entire city center will go beyond corporate campus headquarters to building global factories to produce whatever they patent. This is where Hopkins is extending into East Center Baltimore and this expansion will continue and engulf greater Baltimore. UnderArmour is preparing to do the same building north into West Center Baltimore and west to Patapsco in all likelihood.
Take Larry Hogan's CORE corporate campus that will probably meet UnderArmour's CENTER WEST campus and extend into Pimlico/Park Heights/Gwynn's Falls for example. These global corporate campuses are miles in size and all of Baltimore's tax revenue is being tied to bonds for decades to only these kinds of developments. Again, with any global corporate campus they already have global partners that will handle all construction, development, real estate business, and will use a global labor pool.
WE THE PEOPLE OF BALTIMORE PAY TAXES AND THEY CONTINUE TO BUILD GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUSES HAVING NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CITIZENS OF BALTIMORE FOR THESE FEW DECADES.
'Over the coming years, BASF is looking to invest a total of €10 billion towards expansion in the APAC region and setting up the innovation campus is part of the plan'.
What many find unattractive about these global corporate campuses including many who are forced into these global labor pools is that there never seems to be a permanent community as workers from white collar professionals to blue collar/factory are constantly moved around from one International Economic Zone and global corporation to another. Many Hopkins professional know this dynamic but just think of what this looks like on a greater regional level with each of these global corporate campuses surrounding city center are doing this same thing----there is no community connectivity or economy outside these corporate campus parameters.
BASF to set up 360 crore innovation campus in Navi Mumbai
Representational image (dna Research & Archives)
Ashish K Tiwari | Wed, 10 Dec 2014-05:57am , Mumbai , dna
Global chemical specialist BASF SE is expanding its research and development (R&D) presence in Asia Pacific and is setting up a greenfield 'Innovation Campus' at its Navi Mumbai plant.
Housing 300 scientists from India and abroad, the company will spend Rs 360 crore (€50 million) to make the facility operational by 2017.
Martin Brudermüller, vice chairman of the board of executive directors, BASF SE, and responsible for the Asia Pacific region, said the APAC region faces enormous challenges that the company addresses with innovation from chemistry. "We operate a strong global R&D network, which we will further strengthen with investments in innovation capacities in Asia Pacific. We will not only serve our customers in all industries in the region but also in other regions with global research projects that will be led out of Mumbai," said Brudermüller.
The Innovation Campus in Mumbai will be BASF SE's second such facility in the APAC region after Shanghai, China, and focus on areas such as crop protection, process development and polymer research. The facility will also help consolidate BASF India's R&D activities spread between two centres -- Chandivali and Navi Mumbai. "Both centres house close to 100 scientists and a considerable amount of work is already being undertaken between the two centres. In fact, we are in very advanced stages of filing a patent from the start-up R&D facility launched this year," said Raman Ramachandran, CMD, BASF India & head - South Asia.
Over the coming years, BASF is looking to invest a total of €10 billion towards expansion in the APAC region and setting up the innovation campus is part of the plan. The company has invested Rs 1,000 crore (€150 million) towards a large-scale chemical production complex at Dahej in Gujarat. This apart, investments have been made for setting up manufacturing facilities in Chennai (for automotive catalysts) and there are plans to set up another facility at Nellore in Andhra Pradesh to manufacture admixtures and powders for the construction industry.
"Of the total capex, 20% has already being disclosed and the balance will be invested gradually over the coming years. India can expect a good chunk of this €10 billion capex," said Brudermüller. He said that besides investing in the new R&D facility in Mumbai, the company is also planning to establish specialised research facilities in Asia Pacific in the areas of electronic materials, battery materials, catalysis, mining, water treatment, polymers and materials. "Step by step, Asia Pacific thus becomes an integral part of our global innovation power," he said.
By 2020, the company is targeting to €30 billion in worldwide sales with products being introduced to the market since 2011. To achieve this, BASF is developing the research organisation and bundling its competencies in three global platforms, with the headquarters of Advanced Materials & Systems Research based in the Asia Pacific region. The management had earlier said that it aims to locate 25% of its global R&D employees in Asia Pacific by 2020.
According to BASF's designated president of advanced materials & systems research, Harald Lauke, the new innovation campus in Mumbai will bring the best international scientists from India and other parts of the world together into the global BASF R&D Verbund. "Our global major research platforms, from beginning of 2015 namely Advanced Materials & Systems Research, Bioscience Research, and Process Research & Chemical Engineering, will be active in Mumbai," he said.
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This is the NGO partnered with Wall Street Baltimore Development making all the US cities deemed International Economic Zones with Trans Pacific Trade Pact policies. Each US city being transformed into an Asian International Economic Zone has these types of organizations filled with rich white men----always placing a person of color as a lead because----- citizens of color are going to get creamed. 1% Wall Street are rich white men taking what are heavily populated US cities having majority black and brown citizens----mostly working class and poor. When we have black and brown leaders like this stating BALTIMORE NEEDS JOB CREATION AND A 'WELCOMING' BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT----she is saying TAX FREE, REGULATION-FREE, GLOBAL LABOR POOL, FORGET THE ENVIRONMENT AS 'FRIENDLY'.
Now, if one has a city like Baltimore that has been a majority black who for decades were employed and paying taxes and even with the huge unemployment in black communities most families have paid their share, then to avoid unacceptable injustice we should see REAL employment opportunities coming. What we do see is when the working poor do get jobs they get to be treated just as those global immigrant workers----having wage theft, entire paychecks not appear and there will not be affordable housing to accommodate. If American white citizens keep thinking this is OK----it becomes OK for you, your children, and grandchildren too. This is why we are on the march to 1% Wall Street far-right authoritarian, militaristic MARXISM.
WE MUST STOP GLOBAL CORPORATE CAMPUS POLICIES AND REBUILD EACH COMMUNITY WITH ITS OWN ECONOMY TO PROTECT SOVEREIGN CITIZENS AND OUR FREEDOM.
' Moving forward, economic expansion and job creation need to remain top priorities, said Hill, the first African-American woman to serve as the committee's chair'.
I am glad ex-felons received good news on these fronts but we all know citizens with no records, with education, with good job histories are not getting those jobs and are represented in large numbers to that 50% unemployment stat.
SHAKE THAT RACE AND CLASS BALTIMORE and come together as a 99% vs that 1%
Job creation, economic expansion must be Baltimore's top priorities, GBC leaders say
Stephanie C. Hill
(Amy Davis / Baltimore Sun file)
Lorraine MirabellaContact ReporterThe Baltimore Sun
For continued recovery, Baltimore needs job creation and "welcoming" business environment, GBC leaders say.Leaders of the Greater Baltimore Committee called on Baltimore-area businesses to embrace initiatives to hire ex-offenders and city youths as ways to build on slow but steady progress since last year's unrest.
"This is a pivotal time for Baltimore City," Stephanie C. Hill, the committee's newly elected chair, told members at its annual meeting Monday. "But it is also an important time for all businesses and citizens in our area because an economy and perception of a region is only as strong as its central core."
The city, she said, is attracting millennials, high-tech companies and big projects such as the multibillion-dollar proposed Port Covington development of offices, stores, residences and parks, anchored by a headquarters for Under Armour. Moving forward, economic expansion and job creation need to remain top priorities, said Hill, the first African-American woman to serve as the committee's chair.
She highlighted steps the business group has taken since last spring: starting a fund to help riot-damaged businesses recover, increasing the number of hires in the city's Youth Works and private sector Hire One Youth programs to 8,000 young people and launching Coalition for a Second Chance to help ex-offenders overcome job barriers.
She told the more than 760 attendees at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore that it will be "imperative" that the committee quickly joins forces with the new mayor and City Council members who will be elected in November.
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We will take this week to look at taxation from a local viewpoint and know Baltimore as a US city may be more repressive in public policy but representative of all the kinds of tax policy concerns for WE THE PEOPLE.
The first thing we need to look at in understanding the extent of damage brought by global corporate subsidy is that 1% Wall Street global pols and media want to be sure data doesn't show actually HOW MUCH OF THIS IS HAPPENING. Corporate tax subsidy is like a Wall Street complex financial instrument----it is so circuitous and impossible to follow allowing for the history of extreme abuse with fraud and corruption. As well, when we see data given in media that tells citizens-----THIS DOES NOT AFFECT YOUR TAX RATE-----they are lying. Baltimore citizens have to listen to our local media and public officials constantly telling us ----don't worry, over a billion dollars in leveraged bond debt in Baltimore will not effect citizens' taxes. WE ALL KNOW IT WILL.
So, the number below is a national number----that much tax incentive comes just to the global health industry for example. We KNOW that figure is not right-----New York Times did this analysis.
- '$80.4 billion in incentives each year
- 1,874 No. of programs'
A wonderful looking interactive chart shows us Maryland has a very small corporate subsidy total when in fact we know corporate subsidy in Maryland is as high as Texas----the highest in the nation. Just look at the corporate tax subsidy for UnderArmour's campus $535 million to see how that one subsidy super-sizes the entire State of Maryland corporate subsidy number----$554. Baltimore gives these tax breaks away like candy so we KNOW that data is skewed.
Maryland
Maryland spends at least $554 million per year on incentive programs, according to the most recent data available. That is roughly:
- $96 per capita
- 4¢ per dollar of state budget
- Top Incentives by type
- $270 million in Corporate income tax credit, rebate or reduction
- $238 million in Sales tax refund, exemptions or other sales tax discounts
- $22.1 million in Cash grant, loan or loan guarantee
- Top Incentives by industry
- $89.3 million in Agriculture
- $37.8 million in Rental cars
- $13.3 million in Film
'To that end, his real estate firm, Sagamore, has asked the city of Baltimore for a record-breaking $535 million in so-called tax increment financing'.
Here is the usual attempt by Baltimore business people and media to tell us------THESE COPIOUS TAX BREAKS HAVE NO AFFECT ON A BALTIMORE CITIZENS' TAXES. I want to use this one corporation---UnderArmour as an example but this same pattern has occurred throughout Baltimore's Enterprise Zone development with global Johns Hopkins building a global empire from tax avoidance and subsidy to great detriment to our citizens.
Facts and myths about the Under Armour TIF
Here are the facts about the TIF for Under Armour's Port Covington plan.Despite its inaccuracies, I was pleased to read Mark Thistel's letter of March 18, "Baltimore can't afford Sagamore," because it provides an opportunity to correct a number of misconceptions about tax-increment financing, or TIF, and specifically the proposed TIF for public infrastructure in Port Covington.
Here are the answers to some important questions:
If you own a house or hold a job in Baltimore, how much of the tax that you pay will support a TIF?
Not one cent.
How much will your taxes increase to support the TIF?
Not one cent.
How much money sitting in the city's general fund today will go toward the TIF?
Not one cent.
How much money that could otherwise be spent today for schools, or in another neighborhood, will go toward the TIF?
Not one cent.
Is this a tax break or subsidy for Sagamore Development or Under Armour?
No — it is the opposite. Without new taxes paid by the owners within Port Covington, there will be no TIF. And taxes currently paid on the property will continue to flow to the city.
TIF dollars come from outside investors as a loan to the city to build public infrastructure, like sewer, water, streets and public parks. The funds are repaid by the new, increased property taxes from only within the re-development area, not from any other part of the city.
So when critics say that as taxpayers they did not expect to be presented with a bill for this project, I have good news. They have not and will not. The immediate net impact on a city taxpayer is zero. The long-term net impact for Baltimore is new jobs, massive private investment, and new tax revenues for the city.
Some have said that Under Armour, as a profitable corporation, should pay for its own headquarters. More good news — TIF funds will only be used for public infrastructure and will not be spent within the UA campus boundary or on any UA campus office building. This is worth repeating: Under Armour will pay in full to build its own internal infrastructure and headquarters.
An additional concern that has been raised is the city's creditworthiness to issue a large TIF bond, and some commentators have implied that the entire amount would come at once. This is not true. TIF bonds, in this case, will be issued over 25 years as infrastructure is phased in, and only as each phase becomes real.
The number $535 million seems extraordinary. However, this is a potentially extraordinary redevelopment, and more importantly that number only materializes over 25 years and only if it comes with $4.4 billion of new private investment, plus state and federal investments in Baltimore. And again, not one cent of the $535 million comes from the pocket of the Baltimore taxpayer.
A critical concern is the state education funding formula, and the potential loss of state funding for city schools based on a "phantom" increase in city wealth. This was a major concern for us, given our philanthropic focus on education. Fortunately, a bill has been introduced by Del. Maggie McIntosh and Sen. Nathaniel McFadden to fix this obviously flawed formula. The bill passed the Maryland House of Delegates 135-3 earlier this month, and it is expected to pass the Senate and become law this year.
Many expressing concern about Port Covington have acknowledged the vital importance of Under Armour in Baltimore. I am grateful for Mr. Thistel's comment that Under Armour is "the best thing to happen to Baltimore's corporate community in living memory." President Bill Clinton recently called the company "Baltimore's great shining jewel." The primary goal of Port Covington is to allow Under Armour's headquarters to continue to grow in Baltimore and not in some other city or state.
The larger redevelopment around Under Armour is being designed with public transit, good diverse jobs, environmental improvements, workforce development and neighborhood inclusion as top priorities. It cannot meet every unmet economic need of every family in Baltimore, but its impact will be considerable.
Under Armour is much more than an employer. The company and Kevin Plank personally have made extraordinary investments in Baltimore — millions of dollars for a recreation center (The Rec House) under construction in East Baltimore today, a new hotel, a distillery, new small businesses, sports fields, courts, computer labs, after-school programs, uniforms, scholarships and more. But, as Kevin often says, "we are just getting started." We have exciting and ambitious ideas ahead for the city.
We are proud to call Baltimore our home.
Tom Geddes, Baltimore
The writer is the CEO of Plank Industries and the executive director of The Cupid Foundation, Inc. He is a resident of Baltimore City.
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This is a thoughtful description of the scope of corporate tax subsidy but we can actually look further. Please take time to understand these issues from an international, national, and local level because when a 1% Wall Street global pol talks about public policy today they are talking what is happening GLOBALLY.
Corporate Income Tax Credits
Corporate Income Tax Credits
Tax credits are economic development subsidies that reduce a company's taxes by allowing it to deduct all or part of certain expenses from its income tax bill on a dollar for dollar basis.
Tax credits are usually granted for a particular kind of corporate activity a state wants to promote. Investment tax credits, which allow companies to subtract from their tax bill amounts spent on new facilities and/or equipment, are a boon for capital-intensive manufacturing industries. Research and development (R&D) credits are especially lucrative for pharmaceutical and high-tech companies.
Both the federal and state governments grant “job creation tax credits” to companies for hiring workers. In some cases, the credits are granted only for hiring disadvantaged workers. This is the case with many state enterprise zone programs and the federal Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC or “WAHT-see”). WOTC is designed to encourage employers to hire “hard to employ” workers such as ex-offenders, workers leaving welfare, recent food stamp recipients, low-income veterans or the disabled. WOTC is widely used by employers of low-wage, low-skill workers, especially in the fast food and retail sectors. Other tax credit programs give credits for hiring any new workers. Credits typically range from $1,000 to $5,000 per worker.
The theory underlying these credits is that certain types of corporate investments are crucial for boosting development and therefore deserve special tax treatment.
How tax credits work
Corporations pay federal income tax on their profits, and most states levy a corporate income tax as well (sometimes called a business franchise tax). The tax collected by each state is the state's tax rate multiplied by the company's in-state taxable profits. For companies that do business in more than one state, the state calculates the amount of taxable profits using an apportionment formula. Typically, the formula includes the shares of a company's nationwide payroll, assets, and sales that are in a particular state (learn more about tax formulas).
Tax credit programs are created by laws passed by federal and state legislatures. Tax credits are entitlement subsidies. Unlike discretionary subsidies, which are individually negotiated between a company and a taxing jurisdiction, tax credits are available to any company that meets the program's criteria. Those criteria may restrict the credit to companies in a particular industry, or to companies that invest over a certain amount of money, locate in a certain part of a state, hire disadvantaged workers, pay a certain wage, etc.
While tax credits cannot be negotiated on a case-by-case basis with companies since they must be incorporated into a state's tax code, many companies successfully lobby for the creation of tax credits tailored to their profiles. In several recent high-profile development deals, state legislatures have created new tax credits to subsidize specific companies considering locating in the area.
Tax credits are different than tax deductions. A tax deduction is subtracted from a company's income before the amount of tax is calculated, lessening the amount of profit subject to taxation. Say a company spends $5,000 on new equipment. If a state allows the company to deduct that amount from its profits, the company subtracts $5,000 from its profits; if the income tax rate is 10 percent, the company saves $500 in taxes.
Tax credits are subtracted from the amount of tax owed rather than from a company's income. In the example above, if the state allows the company to take a credit equal to the amount it spent on equipment, the company saves $5,000 in taxes. (Tax abatements, which typically reduce property taxes, are similar to credits in that they knock off a percentage of a company's final tax bill -- for example, a company receiving a 50-percent property tax abatement pays only half the property tax it would otherwise owe).
Companies claim tax credits when they file their tax return. Sometimes companies are required to submit documentation proving they fulfilled the terms of the credit; other times states rely on sporadic audits to confirm compliance. Many tax credits allow companies to claim the amount, or a percentage of the amount, of investment up to a certain dollar figure. Credits for job creation often set a specific figure a company can claim for each qualified job created.
Some states' credits are so generous that the credit wipes out the company's entire state income tax bill. If a company's credit exceeds its tax bill for the year, the company is often allowed to “carry forward” the leftover credits for use in future years. In many states, it is not uncommon for a company building a new facility to pay no state income taxes at all on the plant's profits for years.
Accountability and outcomes
Critics of tax credits question whether tax credits are effective in increasing the activities they attempt to promote, or whether those activities would occur regardless. For instance, the definition of what exactly “research and development” constitutes is often quite vague and may be stretched to include many activities that appear to be routine functions rather than a search for new knowledge, products, or processes. Even with true R&D, there is no assurance that the credited activity would not have been made in the absence of the credit. Similar issues arise with regard to job creation and investment credits.
These are important questions to ask, since tax credits are extremely expensive and often last for years. Among all the development subsidies states offer, tax credits are the most harmful to state budgets. Tax credits often do not undergo the same scrutiny in the state budgeting process as do direct economic development expenditures. Rather than necessitating an allocation of funds, tax credits take the form of forgone tax revenue. In the end, tax spending has the same effect as direct spending -- reducing the money available for state services and programs. Most states do not tally the amount of revenue lost to tax credits, making them one of the less accountable subsidies.
Some programs are better than others at targeting credits to companies that create good jobs and/or invest in development that would not otherwise occur. Requirements such as wage, healthcare, environmental, and local hiring standards help to ensure that companies subsidized with public money have a measurable, positive impact on local communities.
Most tax credits are structured so that companies receive the subsidy only after meeting the program's criteria – that is, they are paid only for what they actually do, not what they plan to do. This is a smart way to structure a subsidy, but it still requires state governments to be vigilant in monitoring and enforcing the provisions of tax credits laws. Many (but not all) tax credit laws contain reporting requirements detailing what documents a company must collect or complete to demonstrate compliance. The better laws also contain clawbacks that empower the state to reclaim the amount of the credit, with interest or penalties, if the company is found to be noncompliant with the terms of the program.
Researching tax credits
Corporate income tax credits are the most poorly disclosed tax breaks. No state requires corporate tax returns to be made public, and very few states have any kind of company-specific disclosure data that reveals how much a company didn't pay because of a tax credit.
Since you can't see a company's state tax return, you will probably have to make a good-faith estimate of the value of a tax credit to a company, using the information available. If the company is publicly traded, there should be a mention of the credit in the financial statements it files with the Securities and Exchange Commission and which are made public through the EDGAR system on the SEC website (www.sec.gov). See, for example the 10-K annual report.
Otherwise, state development departments may be able to estimate the amount of the credit. If the deal you are researching is large enough to warrant media coverage, there may be published estimates of the credit amount. Information on Work Opportunity Tax Credits is sometimes available from state WOTC coordinators. However, in many states, the coordinators do not collect comprehensive data, or else have a policy of not divulging the information.
Some states publish tax expenditure budgets that compile the total amount of money the state lost to each kind of corporate tax credit without company-specific information.
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