GPEC to out of state corporations: come to Arizona, exploit workers, make big profits!

The webpage and PR magazine for the Greater Phoenix Economic Council's Arizona Sun Corridor Partnership (ASCP) essentially amounts to one big "screw you" to workers, enticing corporations to Arizona by arguing that Arizona workers receive scant protections at work and that corporations can expect to take large profits on their backs thanks to low personal and corporate tax rates.

The ASCP, essentially a who's who of corporate boosters pushing a massive region-wide and environmentally-destructive development project (which includes the idiotic Loop 202 expansion, recently ranked by the Sierra Club as one of the worst transportation projects in the US), lists several attributes that they see as arguing in favor of out of state businesses relocating to Arizona. They basically break down into two categories: (1) You can exploit your workers, and (2) You won't be taxed while you do it.

Just a few of GPEC's corporate partners, putting their seal of approval on GPEC's vision of high corporate profits and low worker protections.

While one of the seven bullet points listed under the heading "Expand or Relocate Your Business to the Arizona Sun Corridor" refers to the number of flights that out of state corporate execs can take as they zip in and out before and after exploiting Arizona workers, the rest clearly highlight the relative ease with which that exploitation will take place, as well as the low rate of taxation the corporations and their execs will get while pocketing their profits.

• "Individual income taxes are 4.5% versus up to 13.3% in California
• Corporate taxes are capped at 6.97% and decreasing to 4.9%
• Workers compensation rates are almost half of those in California
• We have the lowest unemployment insurance tax in the nation
• Our unionization rate is up to four times lower than in California
• We’re a Right to Work State"

The public relations magazine they put out comes with this handy graphic, in case you're the kind of greedy CEO that needs a visual demonstration of the relative scale of your rapaciousness.  Nice utilization of gold, by the way.  I'd have gone with blood red, myself, although now that I think of it, stacking skulls would have really gotten the point across, and given proper tribute to their fondness for the low workers compensation rates in Arizona (after all, with no protections at work, who can bring a suit against the boss?).

In the end, though, what the website and the glossy magazine show us is their ideal vision of the world.  One in which development, high profits and CEO pay come at the expense of workers, who get little or no protection on the job, little to no recourse when injured at work, and little to no protection from dislocation between jobs when some fatcat executive prefers taking profits over keeping you employed.  Hey, that private jet doesn't pay for itself, you know.  Welcome to the future.  Welcome to the Sun Corridor.