Office Depot Capitalists demand Illinois Taxpayers pay them or else

Corporate Tax Subsides should be relabeled The Pleasure of Working For Us Tax. Office Depot and OfficeMax merged earlier this year and since that business announcement have been playing Illinois and Florida off against each other in the never ending Race-to-the-Bottom.

This has been a standard tactic of Corporations. They learned long ago workers are interchangeable and that by going to legislatures they could get State Governments to provide them with legally constructed tax havens and public assistance.

On December 10th, Office Depot announced their newly merged company will put its headquarters in Boca Raton, not at the existing OfficeMax offices in Naperville, Illinois. This despite a promise by the Illinois Government to pay them $53 million in welfare over 15 years.

And all Office Depot would have had to do would be to promise to keep 2000 clerical jobs in Illinois for that welfare. The vast majority of products sold in these stores are not made in Illinois or Florida, but China. Some paper products are produced by the Illinois company North American Paper.

So, while the Office Depot Corporate Welfare deal fell through, Sears Inc and CME Group still received millions of Illinois Tax Payer Dollars in the last 2 years and are promised hundreds of millions more over the next decade and a half.

Meanwhile, 80,000 Illinois residents are set to lose Federal Unemployment benefits in January, while 109,000 Illinois residents collecting State benefits would be unaffected at first.

"While today’s job growth allows most newly unemployed individuals to find work after a several weeks, the long-term unemployed face additional hurdles," Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) Director Jay Rowell said in a prepared statement." Ending this modest program based on a calendar date rather than economic principles and job skills could slow economic growth."

That's because benefits paid to Illinois residents are often immediately are pumped back into the economy in terms of purchases or rent, while money given to Corporations is funneled away from the state. After Sears received their Illinois Welfare in December 2011 they closed 2 Sears and 3 K-Mart stores in the State, 3 months later. They got their money from the State and left.

"I'm a Wealth of Nations guy," Republican Congressman So and So stated on MSNBC during the Republican Government Shutdown.

I seriously doubt that Republican So and So has actually read The Wealth of Nations. It's one of those books people place on their mantle to look smart and a phrase that right-wingers trot out as way of an argument instead of actually defending their positions. 

It's allows the Republican or Right-Winger to merely say the words, 'Bible. Wealth of Nations. Freedom. Flag. Founding Fathers. Ronald Reagan.' They don't actually say anything when confronted on the actual failings of their sick and twisted ideology.

Similarly, when Republicans want to attack they say, 'Liberalism. Marxism. Entitlements. Mainstream Media.' and so forth.

It's not an actual argument to make vague allusions to phrases or concepts but it is a good stimulus-response mechanism. It's all designed to invoke emotional r-brain responses in their duped and unthinking conservatives dronez.

What we are seeing in Illinois with Sears, CME Group and Office Depot and with thousands of Corporations across the Nation is Capitalism in action. Capitalism is the Privatizing of Profits and the Subsidizing of Losses.

Office Max Inc. seeking more Corporate Tax Dodging Laws

Corporations love the fact that Conservatives and Liberals battle over abortion because it allows them to control the Government.

While people focus elsewhere Corporate Boards and CEOs lobby, cajole, pressure and bully local, State and the Federal Government to write into law any number of loop-holes and tax deferments to aid the Corporations in avoiding paying their fair share of taxes.

Corporations don't "succeed" these days by rewarding their workers or by efficiency or superior products but by legerdermain and lobbying.

Office Max Inc. mergered with Office Depot now the new company, with an estimated yearly revenue of $18 Billion is looking towards playing Illinois and Florida against one another to see which State will offer them the best tax avoidance loopholes.

Illinois State Senator Thomas Cullerton has offered up Illinois House Bill 3271 which would allow Office Max to claim at least $30 Million in tax credits over 10 years against withheld employee income taxes.

Thus, Workers Pay Taxes Corporations Don't.

There's been a lot of bullshit rhetoric by economists that U.S. Corporate Tax Rates are too high.

"The lower the tax rate, the less incentive there is for companies to engage in sophisticated gamesmanship to get around the rate," argues Victor Fleischer, a professor at the University of Colorado Law School.

The economists making the argument are Corporatists through and through. Claiming that is that since the Corporations are going to cheat, buy politicians and illegally influence laws well we should give into them and allow them their way.

These Corporatists claim the lower Corporate rate and tax free repatriation holiday may entice Company's to bring the money back to the U.S. Of course, this is just the Race-to-the-Bottom that Corporations love. Because creating lower rates will just create a new round of tax avoidance, of loop hole creation and the adoption of a lower tax rate cycle.

Ultimately what Corporations want is to have a Zero Tax Rate on Corporate Earnings while their Wage Slaves cover the costs of which benefit them.

Thomas Cullerton claims Illinois' strengths as a transportation hub with a well-educated workforce will entice Office Max/Office Depot into moving it's Corporate HQ to Illinois. But, how is that transportation network and educated workforce being maintained?

In Illinois, 15 bridges are in "critical" need of repair across the six collar county Chicago metropolitan area, and nearly 300 more are considered structurally deficient, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). This Daily Herald Story has Zero Comments despite the story's claim that, 317 of the 3,759 bridges in the six counties that IDOT lists as "structurally deficient," where one of the three main components of the bridge — the driving surface, horizontal supports and vertical supports — is rated as being in poor or worse condition by inspectors.

Additionally, as we've seen with the Chicago Public School System. The reason the Schools are underfunded is because of Corporate Tax Dodging which Office Max wishes for themselves has received in the past and which other Corporations in Illinois; such as Sears Holdings Corp., Navistar International Corp., Ford Motor Company and Motorola Mobility, have profited off of in the past.

Information like this are glossed over because the blinkered anti-taxers have a truncated view of taxes. You didn't build that was more accurate than most people want to give President Obama credit. 

But, hey actually delving into the matter of responsibility for the crumbling infrastructure and broken education system requires more thought than mindlessly blaming the Evil Government or Greedy Union Thugs.

And thus Corporations continue to sidestep their fair share.