COMIDA's Welfare Sucks

ROCHESTER - Despite my usual 'commie, hippy, liberal' rhetoric, let me say this: I love capitalism. I believe capitalism is a perfect partner for freedom. I put out a product or service and my peers judge its value. It is simple and wonderful. My love of capitalism makes me hate the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency. Stalin and Mao would blush at the contempt COMIDA has for the free market.

The goal of COMIDA is worthy. While I do not think government should be giving out taxpayer money to private business at all, I understand that in this new world, there is a decent argument that governments need this tool to compete. On the assumption that COMIDA is necessary, it still is terrible. It is the most corrupt of all government agencies because it literally hands over public money to private people. There is no secret brief cases, no clandestine back alley payoffs. No sir, COMIDA hands out government money in the open. They brag about it! COMIDA is nothing more than a legal way for the current administration to pay out campaign contributors.

Still assuming COMIDA could work effectively, it misses the mark on another (would be) admirable goal. Retaining jobs. Company A comes to Monroe County and says, 'we want to stay, but it would be cheaper to move, and maybe a tax break would be the difference.' No shame for asking, right? But shame on COMIDA's selection process. They recently gave some breaks for Harley School. Is Harley going to move a school? They want to give breaks so Midtown Athletic Club can build clay tennis courts. Is the club going to move if they can't get clay courts? Guess what, if you want clay courts, charge your monocle wearing, caviar eating, Lexus driving members a higher membership fee, use my tax dollars to make sure the public courts are in good repair in public parks. When retaining jobs, please keep up the charade of public benefit by keeping jobs that could reasonably be moved.

The last aim that misses the mark is job creation. Using Enron style accounting, COMIDA can claim to be creating jobs all over the place. But they do so by shifting jobs. Tax breaks to move a law firm from Rochester to Perinton creates 75 jobs in Perinton. There is your press release. Conveniently forgotten is the fact that 75 jobs were in the community before, but now those 75 jobs come with a tax break. So what have we gained? In fact, we lose. With COMIDA, as taxpayers, we always lose.

Folks in the private sector complain about government interference from burdensome regulation to high taxation. 'Government can't operate like a business,' they yell. I agree. So why do we let a government agency give corporate welfare to businesses? If government is so incompetent, shouldn't their approval of a business be the kiss of death? If businesses are not worthy, capitalism weeds them out. That is why I love it. It is the most democratic of all economics because we (the consumers) vote with our patronage. If we allow the government to decide what businesses succeed or fail, are we any different from any communist or fascist country?