Lucrative local government incentives total $4.17 billion annually in California and the state's booming agriculture industry receives the largest chunk of that funding, according to a study done by the New York Times.
That's a far cry from the $19.1 billion in subsidies doled out in Texas, the state with the most robust incentive programs, but still amounts to 5 cents of every dollar in the California state budget, the data collected by the NYT showed.
The leading kinds of incentives in California were corporate income tax credits, rebates or reductions, at $2.29 billion, followed by other income tax breaks ($1.44 billion) and sales tax refunds or exemptions ($386 million), according to the NYT.
The top incenvites by industry ranked agriculture No. 1 with $208 million. The film industry recevied $191 million and tech ranked third with $105 million.
A small chunk of the subsidy pie comes to Contra Costa County. Local companies received just almost $9.2 million in incentive program funding in the past 10 years, according to the NYT data.
The largest subsidy in all of Contra Costa County went toward Integrated Management Systems Market. The company took in four grants between 2006 and 2009 worth a total of $1.17 million. The second highest recipient was Chevron, which got $1.05 million in "free services" from 2004 to 2009.
See the top 10 recipients of subsidies in Contra Costa County below.
Incentive Programs Amount Company Type of Grant # of Grants Years Received $1.17 million Integrated Management Systems MarketFree Services
4 2006-2009 $1.05 million Chevron Free Services 3 2004-2009 $498,177 Chevron Products Company Free Services 2 2003-2006 $305,442 Usona Powder Coatings Free Services 2 2008-2010 $290,168 Accenture LLP Free Services 1 2008 $235,196 Pacific Coast Maritime Consortium Free Services 2 2005-2006 $233,532 Dow Chemical Free Services 3 2006-2009 $188,208 Sealy Inc. Free Services 2 2007-2009 $151,535 Inland Paperboard & Packaging Inc. Free Services 5 2003-2005 $117,020 USA-Crinc Free Services 1 2003
