Washington, D.C. — With momentum growing at the state and local level to address the corporate power crushing local economies and democracies, the American Economic Liberties Project today released a set of three aggressive policy toolkits for state and local lawmakers seeking to tackle the harms of Big Tech firms, lax antitrust laws, and the corporate subsidy machine.

“State and local leaders have been on the front lines of challenging corporate power in recent year, and we hope this aggressive agenda helps even more elected officials join the fight,” said Pat Garofalo, director of state and local policy at the American Economic Liberties Project. “There are concrete steps state and local lawmakers can take to rein in the abuses of dominant corporations, protect local businesses and workers, and foster thriving local economies. The time to take them is now.”

“What we’re observing right now is a bipartisan upheaval against the abuses of massive corporations, with both parties vying for the mantle to protect working people and families from the harmful effects of corporate greed,” said Lee Hepner, legal counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project. “This isn’t the first time that reform has taken a bottom-up approach in the wake of decades of lax enforcement at the federal level, and we’re happy to give state and local actors the tools they need to protect their constituents.”

“Tools for Taking on the Corporate Subsidy Machine,” authored by Economic Liberties’ Director of State & Local Pat Garofalo, serves as a how-to-guide for state and local lawmakers to reform and rework corporate subsidy programs so that they are more transparent, better serve their communities, and don’t entrench dominant corporations. The toolkit outlines nine key issue areas and policy recommendations, including banning NDAs in economic development, creating an interstate compact against tax giveaways, making the application and approval process transparent, and more.

“Reforming Antitrust Policy to Challenge Corporate Power: A Guide for State Lawmakers,” authored by Economic Liberties’ Legal Counsel Lee Hepner, lays out several ways for state governments and enforcers to decentralize economic power, redistribute that power to communities, and create an inclusive, robust democracy. The toolkit sets forth a number of policy proposals that will have immediate, tangible impacts, including creating an “abuse of dominance” standard for violation of state antitrust laws, cracking down on illegal price fixing with pleading standards that place the burden of proof on large corporations, reining in monopsony power to protect workers’ wages and working conditions, among others.

“Tools for Taking on Big Tech’s Economic Power: A Guide for State Lawmakers,” authored by Economic Liberties’ Pat Garofalo, is a roadmap for state lawmakers that details the problems caused by Big Tech, outlines potential policy solutions, and explains how to respond to some of the critiques – both legitimate and not – from those invested in the status quo. The toolkit outlines eight key issue areas and policy recommendations, including regulating app store dominance to help small and mid-sized businesses, stop subsidizing Big Tech’s expansion, taxing digital ad revenue, and more.

Read “Tools for Taking on the Corporate Subsidy Machine” here.

Read “Reforming Antitrust Policy to Challenge Corporate Power: A Guide for State Lawmakers” here.

Read “Tools for Taking on Big Tech’s Economic Power” here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

###

The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.