Texas

The Heartland Institute's Budget & Tax News reports on a tax incentive program in Texas that has not gone according to plan. Here is an excerpt:

The State of Texas is demanding that Cabela's Inc. return $28,000 and forfeit another $200,000 from a state grant for failing to create enough jobs at a store that received economic incentives.

Kathy Walt, a spokesperson for Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), confirmed to the Austin Business Journal on August 15 that the Cabela's store in Buda had failed to create the promised 400 jobs.

If Cabela's had hit its jobs target, it would have qualified for $400,000 in Texas Enterprise Fund money. The firm has to return $28,000 of a $200,000 incentive payment the state had made, as the job creation fell short of even half the promised number.

The grant was offered as an enticement for Cabela's to build stores in Buda and Fort Worth.

That's a good example of costly litigation for the state that could have been avoided if the bureaucrats had relied on the market for job creation.