Google got millions in tax breaks to open new offices, but locals often didn't know til too late - Entrepreneur Generations

The Washington Post map by Aaron Steckelberg

Google got millions in tax incentives as it open new offices and data centers across the country — some of them rural — and often without the prior knowledge of communities' residents. That's because Google generally demanded secrecy from developers and city officials when negotiating contracts, Elizabeth Dwoskin reports for The Washington Post.

"Google — which has risen to become one of the world’s most valuable companies by transforming the public’s ability to access information — has vastly expanded its geographic footprint over the past decade, building more than 15 data centers on three continents and 70 offices worldwide," Dwoskin reports. "But that development spree has often been shrouded in secrecy, making it nearly impossible for some communities to know, let alone protest or debate, who is using their land, their resources and their tax dollars until after the fact."

In one example, officials in Midlothian, Tex., a community of about 18,000 near Dallas, approved more than $10 million in tax breaks to Google last May for a new data center. But locals didn't know until it was a done deal. Travis Smith, managing editor of the local paper, the Waxahachie Daily Light, told Dwoskin that "I’m confident that had the community known this project was under the direction of Google, people would have spoken out, but we were never given the chance to speak . . . We didn’t know that it was Google until after it passed."

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2GA1WwY Google got millions in tax breaks to open new offices, but locals often didn't know til too late - Entrepreneur Generations

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