LeRoy, Greg

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Degrees in journalism and U.S. history.

ADDRESSES: Office—Good Jobs First, 1616 P St. N.W., Ste. 210, Washington, DC 20036; fax: 202-232-6680. E-mail—info@goodjobsflrst.org.

CAREER: Good Jobs First, Washington, DC, founder and director. Writer, consultant, and trainer for unions, professional associations, government agencies, and other entities.

AWARDS, HONORS: Public Interest Pioneer Award, Stern Family Fund, 1998.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

No More Candy Store: States and Cities Making Job Subsidies Accountable, Grassroots Policy Project (Washington, DC), 1994.

The Great American Jobs Scam: Corporate Tax Dodging and the Myth of Job Creation, Berrett-Koehler (San Francisco, CA), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Greg LeRoy's 1994 book No More Candy Store: States and Cities Making Job Subsidies Accountable was the first effort to list economic development safeguards, such as job quality standards. LeRoy won the Public Interest Pioneer Award in 1998, and used the prize money to start Good Jobs First, an organization that promotes government and corporate accountability in the area of economic development.

In his book The Great American Jobs Scam: Corporate Tax Dodging and the Myth of Job Creation, LeRoy offers a "stunning" look at the way many large companies get huge tax breaks and other financial incentives from communities in exchange for promises of good jobs and higher tax revenues—promises that are rarely fulfilled, according to a reviewer for Mother Jones. The business practices of Wal-Mart, Hewlett-Packard, Dell Computer, Bank of America and other corporations are explained and critiqued, with LeRoy offering suggestions for reform. His ideas include closing corporate loopholes, entrusting business deals to elected officials rather than appointed ones, and money-back guarantees if companies fail to live up to their promises. Library Journal reviewer Carol J. Elsen called it a "biting expose." A Publishers Weekly reviewer remarked that LeRoy presents "a parade of damning case studies showing why communities should not woo corporations with subsidies."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, July 1, 2005, Carol J. Elsen, review of The Great American Jobs Scam: Corporate Tax Dodging and the Myth of Job Creation, p. 96.

Mother Jones, January-February, 2006, review of The Great American Jobs Scam, p. 75.

Planning, Harold Henderson, review of The Great American Jobs Scam, p. 45.

Publishers Weekly, June 6, 2005, review of The Great American Jobs Scam, p. 55.

Reference and Research Book News, November, 2005, review of The Great American Jobs Scam.

ONLINE

Bookslut, http://www.bookslut.com/ (March 25, 2006), Susan Chenelle, review of The Great American Jobs Scam.

Good Jobs First Web site, http://www.goodjobsfirst.org (March 8, 2006).