For years, the Koch brothers have disparaged corporate welfare while their own companies received millions in breaks. Recently, a Koch subsidiary announced that the brothers will receive another huge tax break (AKA corporate welfare) for remodeling its headquarters.
On Thursday, Georgia Pacific announced a full renovation of its Atlanta branch. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, “The renovation is expected to cost about $150 million, and the board of the agency approved an incentive package involving $7.2 million in property tax breaks for the building over the next 10 years.”
This is hardly the first time that Georgia Pacific has padded the billionaires’ pockets through tax breaks.
Between 2012 and 2014, Georgia Pacific received $11.5 million in Arkansas through the state’s InvestArk tax credit program. Last year, GP’s Brewton, Alabama mill was awarded $347.7 million. The Brewton Standard reports, “The Georgia-Pacific Brewton LLC tax abatement was granted for $347.7 million for the energy improvement project.” Despite the large number, the investment was only to retain jobs already at the mill and did not “create new jobs.”
In 2004, Georgia Pacific was granted a massive tax exemption on Wauna Mill under the condition that they fulfill a promise to create a certain number of jobs at the mill site. The plant was the largest taxpayer in Clatsop County. But in 2007, they were disqualified from the tax exemption for failing to maintain the minimum number of employees as established for the exemption, and forced to repay $4.1 million in exempted taxes — money that would go back to local counties.
In response, Georgia Pacific filed an appeal over the tax exemption that also alleged the site’s entire property tax bill had been miscalculated because the property had been overvalued. While Georgia Pacific did not get everything the Kochs wanted in the end, the multi-million dollar settlement strained local budgets, sucking money away from public services and even forcing the closure of Cannon Beach Elementary School.
The evidence of the Kochs benefiting from corporate welfare is seemingly undeniable. Yet, the Kochs continue to deny it again and again. In November, Charles Koch told MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough he wanted to “stop this corporate welfare,” touting their usual line about the government picking winners and losers — Just five months later they’re lining their pockets with more corporate tax breaks.