(I’d like my $1.7 billion back, please! – promoted by eli_beckerman)
Our police, fire & schools lose $141 mill/yr because MA thinks subsidizing the paychecks of mutual fund company executives is a higher priority. This one giveaway is 10% of the state’s budget deficit this year. The total amount lost each year, when you include all the other desperately needy firms like Raytheon that get this special deal? More than $300 million/year. remember that, when you see what IS cut in this year’s budget.
Curiously enough, Fidelity claims they have no idea how much they’re saving!
At the hearing on Beacon Hill, Fidelity President Ronald O’Hanley declined to say exactly how much the Boston financial services giant benefited from a tax change in 1996 for the mutual fund industry. The Department of Revenue estimates the mutual fund industry has saved roughly $1.7 billion since the law was changed 15 years ago, including an estimated $142 million this tax year alone.
If it matters that little to them, why do we bother?
One of my favorite parts is where our elected officials are completely shocked, shocked I say, to find out that these firms heading out the door with the money we’ve been paying them to stay.
The hearing came just weeks after Fidelity announced plans to close its Marlborough facility and move most of the 1,100 jobs there out of state by the end of 2012. Governor Deval Patrick and other state political leaders complained they were blindsided by the announcement.
Really? They hadn’t noticed Fidelity had cut 1/4 of it’s Massachusetts workforce in the last 5 years?
Fidelity Investments has reduced its Massachusetts workforce by more than a quarter since 2006, while cutting its overall global employment by nearly 10,000 jobs over the past few years.