No corporate giveaways without public benefit
Joplin must stop handing public money, tax breaks, infrastructure commitments, or utility concessions to corporations and developers without enforceable public benefits.
Public funds should create public value: living-wage jobs, safe workplaces, local hiring, strong benefits, affordable utility costs, environmental protections, transparent contracts, and penalties when corporations break their promises.
We demand that the Joplin City Council:
- Require public hearings before major tax incentives, development deals, utility commitments, or public-land transfers.
- Publish every subsidy, incentive agreement, tax abatement, projected job number, actual job number, wage promise, and enforcement action in an easy-to-search public database.
- Attach living-wage, workplace-safety, local-hiring, anti-retaliation, and paid-sick-leave standards to every large city contract and subsidized project.
- Include enforceable clawbacks when companies fail to create promised jobs, pay promised wages, or meet public commitments.
- Require disclosure and public review of major projects’ water, energy, pollution, noise, traffic, housing, and infrastructure impacts.
- Reject data-center or industrial deals that increase costs or risks for residents while producing few accountable, good local jobs.
Corporate welfare is not economic development.