Your Tax Dollars Pay For Wal-Mart’s Greed

According to WakeUpWalMart.com we taxpayers foot the bill for Wal-Mart’s greed and lack of good corporate citizenship.

Costs to Taxpayers

• The estimated total amount of federal assistance for which Wal-Mart employees were eligible in 2004 was $2.5 billion. [The Hidden Price We All Pay For Wal-Mart, A Report By The Democratic Staff Of The Committee On Education And The Workforce, 2/16/04]
  
• One 200-employee Wal-Mart store may cost federal taxpayers $420,750 per year. This cost comes from the following, on average:
  • $42,000 a year for low-income housing assistance.
    
  • $125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions for low-income families.
    
  • $100,000 a year for the additional expenses for programs for students.
    
  • $108,000 a year for the additional federal health care costs of moving into state children’s health insurance programs (S-CHIP)
    
  • $9,750 a year for the additional costs for low income energy assistance.
    

[The Hidden Price We All Pay For Wal-Mart, A Report By The Democratic Staff Of The Committee On Education And The Workforce, 2/16/04]

Health care subsidies compared to executive compensation

• Excluding his salary of $1.2 million, in 2004 Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott made around $22 million in bonuses, stock awards, and stock options in 2004.
  
• This $22 million could reimburse taxpayers in 3 states where Wal-Mart topped the list of users of state-sponsored health care programs, covering more than 15,000 Wal-Mart employees and dependents. [Wal-Mart Proxy Statement and News Articles GA, CT, AL].
  

Your tax dollars subsidize Wal-Mart’s growth

• The first ever national report on Wal-Mart subsidies documented at least $1 billion in subsidies from state and local governments.
  
• A Wal-Mart official stated that “it is common” for the company to request subsidies “in about one-third of all [retail] projects.” This would suggest that over a thousand Wal-Mart stores have been subsidized. [“Shopping For Subsidies: How Wal-Mart Uses Taxpayer Money to Finance Its Never-Ending Growth,” Good Job First, May 2004]
  

Here is the TV ad in support of their campaign.

Download the Wal-Mart and Cost to Taxpayers fact sheet - PDF

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