Money Well Spent? Kentucky Gives Wal-Mart Over 43 Million Dollars Over Past Twelve Years


Even if you don't shop at Wal-Mart - your tax dollars do.

The State of Kentucky has given Wal-Mart over 43 million dollars over the past twelve years. www.maced.org

Kentucky made available to Wal-Mart more than $25 million in incentives for two distribution centers – one in London and one in Hopkinsville. That may sound cheap compared with the other deals, until the cost of publicly funded health insurance is factored in. Nationwide Wal-Mart employees are some states’ largest single consumers of Medicaid and K-CHIP.  Over 145,000 Kentuckians work at Wal-Mart.

Good Jobs First, a Washington, D.C., progressive think tank, estimates that Wal-Mart employees cost Kentucky $34,192,596 in Medicaid and K-CHIP 2005. www.dailyyonder.com