Do Corporate Tax Incentives Work? 20 States, and Most Cities, Don't Know.

The aircraft manufacturer Boeing has received roughly $1 billion in tax incentives and credits from Washington state over the past four years. That includes tens of millions of dollars for activities in 2017 related to production equipment for the 737 MAX jets, all of which have been grounded in the past week after two fatal crashes.

That information is known because Washington state has one of the more well-established tax incentive evaluation programs in the country. As corporate tax breaks -- like the ones used to lure Amazon’s HQ2 -- have come under increasing scrutiny, more states are tracking them and attempting to ensure that the businesses that receive them are holding up their end of the deals.

But, 20 states still don’t regularly assess their corporate giveaways at all, and few cities have established systems to routinely track these incentives.

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