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Analysts and politicians divided over waivers.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard

A growing number of academics and economists pan property-tax waivers for business. Last year, two academics wrote a book on the subject, broadly slamming enterprise-zone tax waivers as unnecessary and ineffective.

But an increasing number of politicians - in Oregon and elsewhere - brush aside such criticism and dole out the breaks to a ballooning number of firms.

In recent years, most academics studying whether it makes sense to offer property tax waivers to induce companies to build factories and create jobs have decided they're a foolish proposition for a community.

Many companies admit that tax waivers are much less important than good workers, low wages and convenient locations. Many of the firms that get tax breaks would have located in the community anyway - and if not those firms, then perhaps others - so why make tax concessions when you don't have to, the academics ask.

But politicians meeting with executives scouting for factory sites typically talk up tax-break packages. That's...

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