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The D.C. moving expense rate: $4,666,667 per mile.

December 30, 2009

The District of Columbia Government is paying $7 million for a company to make a 1.5 mile move ~~within the District.~~* Tax Policy Blog reports:

I'm pleased to hear that Mayor Fenty and much of the D.C. council (the vote was 7 to 5) recognize that D.C.'s taxes are high and keep businesses away. But rather than fix that problem for everyone, they are instead choosing to grant one exemption to a politically connected business in a sweetheart deal. (The $7 million is separate from $12.5 million the company may get in special tax breaks that high-tech firms but no one else are eligible for.)

A classic example of picking the taxpayers' pockets to subsidize the well-lobbied.

*Mary O'Keeffe corrects me; it's across district lines. It's still absurd.

Tags: Corporate welfare.Economic development.Tax Policy Blog.Washington DC.

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Comments

The move is not actually "within the District."

Yes, it's only 1.5 miles, but the company is currently located in Maryland, and the new location will bring it to DC.

So DC taxpayers will gain at the expense of MD taxpayers after the move.

This still raises important policy questions, but they differ in significant ways from the questions that would arise if the move were entirely within DC boundaries.

I grew up in DC very near that neighborhood.

There are lots of interesting tax policy issues involving inner cities vs. their suburbs all over the country, but the DC situation is especially complicated due to the fact that DC does not have a surrounding state.

When I was growing up in DC, it did not have any home rule whatsoever. My parents, who had been born and raised in DC as well, could not vote on the mayor, city council, or school board. My dad, a Korean war vet, didn't even get to vote for President until 1960, when a Constitutional Amendment gave DC residents a vote in Presidential elections.

When I was growing up, DC government was run by a Congressional committee dominated by Congressmen from the VA and MD suburbs. Back in the 1960s, I can remember my neighbors wearing teabags with labels that said "Taxation without representation is tyranny."

My parents moved to the Virginia suburbs in 1970. Since then DC residents have won the right to elect their own mayor, city council, and school board. They also get to elect a "non-voting representative" in Congress.

Some of their choices have not been so great (but the same could be said of the choices of voters in the 50 states.)

On the whole, I'm pretty impressed with what I've read of Mayor Fenty. He has a lot of big challenges. DC is not an easy city to govern.

Posted by: Mary O'Keeffe | December 30, 2009 9:39 AM

Having said all of the above, I still agree that this deal deserves very careful scrutiny, especially in the light of the Washington Post article which mentions campaign donations from the companies involved.

Posted by: Mary O'Keeffe | December 30, 2009 9:50 AM

This is really awesome. I think we should try to get the contract.

Posted by: Chris from DC Movers | January 12, 2010 12:07 PM