Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Kansas Bioscience Authority a fancy name for corporate welfare
[Terry Rombeck, "Bioscience Authority up and running," The Lawrence Journal-World, 12 July 2005.]
Targeted tax breaks and incentives that put government in the business of picking winners and losers are a bad deal for taxpayers and undermine efforts to achieve a true competitive marketplace:
The Kansas Bioscience Authority is officially open for business.
Board members on Monday approved the organization’s first allocation of funds — $150,000 to help lure Prescription Solutions to Overland Park. That money, in turn, will be given by the company to researchers at a state university to help the company develop robotics to dispense drugs.
The Bioscience Authority, which held its quarterly meeting Monday at Kansas University’s Dole Institute of Politics, received its first installment of state funds earlier this month. It totaled nearly $6 million, with an estimated $15 million to $20 million available in the next year.
The board is charged with spending that money to attract life sciences firms, expand existing businesses, fund university research and help turn that research into spin-off companies.
If policymakers didn't have so much fun taxing and spending, they would follow the far better course of reducing the overall tax burden to foster business growth. This holds true no matter what industry is affected - health care is certainly no exception.
[Matthew Hisrich, "Biosciences 'investment' a risky scheme," Kansas Health archived entry, 23 September 2004.]
[Terry Rombeck, "Bioscience Authority up and running," The Lawrence Journal-World, 12 July 2005.]
Targeted tax breaks and incentives that put government in the business of picking winners and losers are a bad deal for taxpayers and undermine efforts to achieve a true competitive marketplace:
The Kansas Bioscience Authority is officially open for business.
Board members on Monday approved the organization’s first allocation of funds — $150,000 to help lure Prescription Solutions to Overland Park. That money, in turn, will be given by the company to researchers at a state university to help the company develop robotics to dispense drugs.
The Bioscience Authority, which held its quarterly meeting Monday at Kansas University’s Dole Institute of Politics, received its first installment of state funds earlier this month. It totaled nearly $6 million, with an estimated $15 million to $20 million available in the next year.
The board is charged with spending that money to attract life sciences firms, expand existing businesses, fund university research and help turn that research into spin-off companies.
If policymakers didn't have so much fun taxing and spending, they would follow the far better course of reducing the overall tax burden to foster business growth. This holds true no matter what industry is affected - health care is certainly no exception.
[Matthew Hisrich, "Biosciences 'investment' a risky scheme," Kansas Health archived entry, 23 September 2004.]
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