Dirt Diggers Digest No. 62
July 1, 2005
Editor: Philip Mattera
1. Illinois begins posting corporate subsidy data
2. "The Great American Jobs Scam"
3. New report debunks business climate rankings
4. Better access to CRS reports
5. FreeERISA offers tool for analyzing executive compensation
6. New York City launches lobbyist/vendor disclosure site
7. Mexico planning improved corporate financial disclosure
8. OneSource expands coverage; Experian offers new info service
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1. Illinois begins posting corporate subsidy data
Illinois has set a new standard for corporate subsidy disclosure
with the launch of a website that implements the requirements
of the state's Corporate Accountability for Tax Expenditures Act
of 2003. Unlike most of the handful of other states with subsidy
disclosure systems, Illinois does not make the information hard
to find. The new site < http://corpacctportal.illinois.gov/ > allows
quick access to the reports that companies now have to file on
their participation in about a dozen subsidy programs. Among the
data in the reports are figures on the number of jobs created and
the pay level of those jobs.
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2. "The Great American Jobs Scam"
Speaking of subsidies, a new book called "The Great American
Jobs Scam" includes a slew of horror stories on abuse of the
practice by companies ranging from Wal-Mart and Dell Computer
to Fidelity Investments and Boeing. The author is Greg LeRoy,
executive director of Good Jobs First, the group that pioneered
subsidy accountability (and where Dirt Diggers editor Phil Mattera
is research director.) The book documents the impact of subsidies
on public services such as education and their contribution to
problems such as sprawl. It also includes a close look at the
site-location consulting firms that pressure states and localities
to play the subsidy game. The book can be found in bookstores
and via online services (including the unionized bookseller Powell's).
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3. New report debunks business climate rankings
One of the pressure tactics used by site-location consultants is to
tell public officials that they need adopt policies that will enhance the
city or state's position in various business climate rankings. A new
report by Peter Fisher called GRADING PLACES shows that, while
the main indices claim to measure capacity for economic growth, they
actually do little more than promote an agenda of low taxes, spending
cuts and reduced regulation. The report can be purchased from the
Economic Policy Institute or viewed in full online at
http://www.epinet.org/books/grading_places/grading_places_(full_text).pdf
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4. Better access to CRS reports
We have often reported on the long-running campaign to improve public
access to the valuable reports produced by the Congressional Research
Service on a wide range of topics, including many of interest to corporate
researchers. Congress treats CRS as its private analytical operation and
releases reports to the public on a very selective basis. A new site called
OpenCRS < www.opencrs.com > produced by the non-profit Center for
Democracy & Technology attempts to facilitate access to the CRS
oeuvre by providing a single database of the several thousand documents
that have been obtained and posted online by various organizations.
While OpenCRS is free, the subscription service Lexis-Nexis announced
recently that CRS documents will be among the materials included in its
Congressional Research Digital Collection scheduled to be launched this
fall < http://www.lexisnexis.com/about/releases/0805.asp >.
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5. FreeERISA offers tool for analyzing executive compensation
FreeERISA, best known for providing access to data from 5500 filings by
employee benefit plans, has launched a new service that makes it possible
to do quick comparisons of executive compensation levels at publicly held
companies. Using data from proxy statements, the Complete Compensation
Database < http://www.freeerisa.com/ccc/ > enables users to do searches
based on geographic area and company data such as revenues and size
of workforce. One can, for example, call up a list of CEOs in a particular
state or metropolitan area and compare their compensation levels to
national averages. The basic service is free, but you have to pay a fee to
be able to export the data to a spreadsheet.
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6. New York City launches lobbyist/vendor disclosure site
Nearly all state governments make available online lists of registered
lobbyists and their clients (Pennsylvania is the one holdout, because of a
court ruling). Getting similar information at the local level is not so easy,
though that has changed in the country's largest city. Recently, New York
launched a website called NYC Lobbyist Search that provides details on
lobbyists, their clients, the parts of government lobbied and issues promoted.
The site < http://www.nyc.gov/html/bizsearch/ > is also home to a database
launched earlier by the city on its vendors. The online version of the Vendor
Information Exchange System has basic data on contractors (total revenues
within a range, names of principals, etc.) as well as the number of contracts
held with the city and their total value.
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7. Mexico planning improved corporate financial disclosure
A recent Reuters dispatch reported that lawmakers in Mexico are expected
to approve changes to the country's stock market laws that would include
stricter requirements on the disclosure of information to investors. The revised
law would make chief executives personally responsible for sharing market-
sensitive data with the public. Reuters raised questions about how well the
law would be enforced, noting that the National Banking and Securities
Commission has failed to make public the names of firms found guilty of
violating securities rules. See http://www.banderasnews.com/0506/nz-disclosure.htm
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8. OneSource expands coverage; Experian offers new info service
The business database OneSource < http://www.onesource.com > has been
beefing up its offerings since being acquired by infoUSA last year. The new
version of its US Business Browser is said to have added in-depth profiles of
more than 160,000 private companies and has doubled its core coverage to
600,000 firms < http://www.onesource.com/about/news_detail_76.asp >.
Although OneSource is priced at a level suitable for large companies, it has
introduced a scaled-down version called OneSource Express.
Meanwhile, the credit rating service Experian is challenging OneSource and
other providers such as D&B with a new subscription service called BizInfo
Online < http://www.experian.com/products/bizinfo.html >. Experian says
that the service will provide "verified data" on more than 12 million U.S.
businesses, including many small and medium firms. That information will
not come cheaply. According to an article in Information Today, pricing
begins at $4,995 a year for a single user.
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A cumulative index of sources (with links) mentioned in
issues of the Dirt Diggers Digest can be found at:
http://www.corp-research.org/dirt_diggers_index.htm.
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Philip Mattera
Research Director & Director of the Corporate Research Project
Good Jobs First