Box Store Mayhem
by: Rep. Dave McAlpin
The advance of big-box stores in Montana has been an ongoing process watched with great interest by elected officials, community groups and citizens across the state. Numerous studies have outlined the overwhelming costs of this development to our communities in tax subsidies, infrastructure improvements, protective services, diminishing property values and the loss of a stable tax base.
Most disturbingly, we are witnessing the closing of scores of locally
owned small businesses as a result of the monopolistic tendencies of corporations like Wal-Mart. These stores come in to our communities, sell us imported products–70% of which are made in China–and then export their profits out of Montana. This process serves to choke the life out of family-owned Main Street businesses which do not operate on a level playing field with large corporations that receive millions of dollars in subsidies, avoid paying the state taxes you and I are subject to and then fail to pay for health care and decent wages.
I strongly believe that it is time for a serious discussion about how big-box development can best benefit Montana. I had hoped to have this exact discussion recently in the House Business and Labor Committee. For these reasons, I introduced HB 652, legislation encouraging Community Benefits Agreements between “Big Box” retail employers and the communities in which they propose to develop. Unfortunately, due largely to the opposition of special interests committed to developing big-box stores all over Montana without respect to the concerns of our communities, the bill was tabled in the Business and Labor Committee. (more…)
More posts by DaveMcAlpin