Mentioned this earlier, a new report on the billions spent by states to move jobs from one state to another, rather than spending the public’s money to create truly new jobs.

What was long ago dubbed a Second War Between the States is, unfortunately, raging again in many parts of the country,” said Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First and principal author of the report. “The result is a vast waste of taxpayer funds, paying for the geographic reshuffling of existing jobs rather than new business activity. By pretending that these jobs are new, public officials and the recipient companies engage in what amounts to interstate job fraud.”

Interstate job piracy is not a fruitful strategy for economic growth, LeRoy noted: “The costs are high and the benefits are low, since a tiny number of companies get huge subsidies for moving what amounts to an insignificant number of jobs.” LeRoy added: “The flip side is job blackmail: the availability of relocation subsidies makes it possible for companies that have no intention of moving to extract payoffs from their home states to stay put.”

Arkansas is prone to be lured into this. The state has been blackmailed for benefits in the past to hang onto operations of existing companies and state incentives have been used to move business within the state, once to benefit a company run by a member of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. So keep your eyes peeled.

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The Job Creation Shell game is here.

Full releease follows.

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