The ‘House of Cards’ vs Maryland Spat Isn’t the Only Case of Corporate Welfare Gone Wrong in the State

As House of Cards enters its third season, the
production company which produces the wildly popular Netflix
original
threatened to leave Maryland if it didn’t receive more tax
credits than it already has. The company quickly learned
corporatism’s double-edge sword when Maryland lawmakers
proposed to use eminent domain to seize the property
of the production company if it attempted to leave.

The Free State is no stranger to corporate welfare as Reason TV
found out earlier this year when Baltimore funded a boondoggle to
revive its waterfront with the help of $400 million in public
subsidies.

Watch the Harbor Point and
Balitmore’s Taxpayer-Funded Edifice Complex above and read
the original post below:

In Baltimore, a small, toxic spit of land that juts out into the
Patapsco River is the latest battleground between the free market
and government subsidies.

For 20 years, Harbor Point, a 27-acre site of an abandoned
chromium factory, has been a dream in the eyes of developers. It’s
the last big unbuilt site on the city’s waterfront and arguably the
most sought-after real estate in all of Maryland.

Yes, developers have lusted after the site, but they just didn’t
want to have pay the full cost of, well, developing it.

In a city as desperate for growth as Baltimore, they don’t have
to. Baltimore’s political class has committed
$400 million in public subsidies to a controversial plan
that supporters claim will generate 6,000 jobs and
build a complex of
skyscrapers, residences, and public parks that will
forever transform the character of the city.

City officials believe the $1.8 billion-dollar project will
spark an economic turnaround. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
considers Harbor Point a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to
reverse the half-century-long exodus of residents and businesses
that have hollowed out Baltimore. Rawlings-Blake and developer
Michael Beatty have campaigned relentlessly for the plan, offering
promises of urban renewal and jobs in a city with 10.3 percent
unemployment.

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