Soccer Dad

What lee scott didn't say

(via memeorandum) In Wal-Mart is in Maryland to Stay, Wal-Mart president Lee Scott writes

If we closed our doors in Maryland, a lot of things would happen, and none of them would be good for the working families of this state. Seventeen thousand associates work for us in Maryland. Every one of them -- both full-time and part-time -- can become eligible for health coverage that costs as little as $23 per month. Our stores here collect $112 million in sales taxes and generate $13 million more in tax revenue for state and local governments. We buy $678 million worth of goods and services from 667 Maryland suppliers. Thanks to our foundation and good works in our stores, we donate $3.7 million to local charities in Maryland. And when it comes to our customers, we save the average household more than $2,300 per year by offering the products people want at affordable prices in one convenient place.

We think those are valuable things we do for the working families of Maryland. And we're planning to do more. We will build more stores, create more jobs, offer even more affordable health care, generate more tax revenue, do more business with suppliers and give more money to local charities. Though the General Assembly passed a bill that affects our company and our company alone, we will not flinch in our commitment to our customers, our associates and the communities we serve. Working families want us in Maryland, and we're staying in Maryland.

That's wonderful. With the health care bill and (unmentioned) minimum wage hike passed by Maryland's General Assembly, Wal-Mart remains committed to staying in the state. Great. But Professors Steve H. Hanke AND Stephen J.K. Walters wrote in Hard Line State

Almost surely, therefore, the company will pull the plug on plans to build a distribution center that would have employed 800 in Somerset County, on Maryland's picturesque Eastern Shore. As a Wal-Mart spokesman has put it, "you have to take a step back and call into question how business-friendly is a state like Maryland when they pass a bill that . . . takes a swipe at one company that provides 15,000 jobs."

What about the distribution center in depressed Somerset County? Scott doesn't mention it at all. I'd read into it that Maryland's General Assembly has struck a blow against business.

Senators and delegates, please don't start asking us for more taxes if you're going to fight business. More business activity = more taxes. If you don't want the business and the benefits it brings to the state don't ask us to make up for your self-inflicted shortfalls.

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