I’m glad Orlando Delogu is writing for your paper. I enjoyed his column on corporate welfare in Maine and the huge burden it’s been for Maine’s taxpayers. It reminded me of the books David Cay Johnston has written about how the U.S.  tax code and other laws have been twisted over the years to subsidize the richest 1 percent.

One thing I disagree with, however, is Mr. Delogu’s characterization of corporations “playing one town or one state against another” to get the best corporate welfare deal as being a “zero-sum game” (which is when the amount lost by the losing party is exactly the amount gained by the winning party). It seems to me a community loses a lot more than just the amount of taxes a corporation will not have to pay, because all the community’s taxpayers end up having to eventually make up the amount forgiven. Plus there are non-monetary losses, such as the effects on a town’s self-esteem from giving in to the corporation’s threats of not building or expanding.

I look forward to more columns by your paper’s “Policy Wonk.”

J.D. Cowie
Portland