Taxpayers Foot Bill for Wal-Mart Expansion

Wal-Mart Stores collected more than $1 billion in state and local government subsidies during its decades-long expansion from a regional discount chain to the world's largest retailer, according to a report Good Jobs First, a group that monitors job- subsidy programs, the New York Times reported in late May.

"We're not accusing them of doing anything illegal or unusual in the corporate world," Philip Mattera, research director of Good Jobs First, a group based in Washington that compiled the report with financing from the UFCW, said in the Times story.

But, Mattera told the Times the report contends that Wal-Mart's low wages and the downward effect that has on wages at other retail operations, its negative effect on small businesses in the communities where it locates, and its contribution to urban sprawl and traffic raise serious questions about the value of giving Wal-Mart sizable financial incentives to expand.

Greg LeRoy, founder of Good Jobs, told the Times that the report bolsters the group's argument that taxpayer-financed subsidies to giant retailers should be restricted to those expanding into poor neighborhoods where shoppers are under served.

The report focused strictly on development subsidies.

The UFCW points out that Wal-Mart's wages are so low that many employees are eligible for food stamps and their lack of medical benefits leaves them dependent on taxpayer-financed medical services or other employers, which also amounts to a huge hidden subsidy.