Wal-Mart's Tax On Us

Greg LeRoy
November 09, 2005



Greg LeRoy is the author of The Great American Jobs Scam: Corporate Tax Dodging and the Myth of Job Creation and executive director of Good Jobs First . This piece originally appeared on Alternet.org.

Wal-Mart, the Alpha Dog of discount stores, has also become the Alpha Hog at the public trough.

The phenomenal growth of the world's largest corporation has been supported by taxpayers in many states through economic development subsidies. A Wal-Mart official once stated that the company seeks subsidies in about a third of its stores, suggesting that more than 1,100 of its U.S. stores are subsidized. A national survey by Good Jobs First in 2004 looked at 160 stores and all of the company's distribution centers—and found that more than 90 percent of them have been subsidized. Altogether, 244 subsidized facilities in 35 states received taxpayer deals of more than $1 billion.