By Pat Garofalo

Today’s guest writer is Pat Garofalo, author of the incisive and insightful newsletter Boondoggle, which covers the various ways corporations and monopolies rip off states, cities and communities, and what we can all do about it.

Junk Fees, Trashed

Minnesota recently became the second state, after California, to pass into law an economy-wide ban on so-called “junk fees” — those ubiquitous “service” and “convenience” fees that have cropped up on everything from live event tickets to food delivery to hotel rooms to self-storage units to carpet cleaning to rent, and on and on. Thirteen states this year considered bills to ban all or most junk fees (and a few of those bills are still alive in the legislative process!). This is, unsurprisingly, a very popular policy position: More than 8 in 10 voters say they are more likely to support a state legislator who backed such legislation.

End Junk Fees.org

Ticketmaster Exclusive

The Department of Justice and 30 state attorneys general last week sued to break up the Live Nation/Ticketmaster monopoly, to the resounding approval of musicians and Swifties everywhere. A key part of the case revolves around what are known as “exclusivity clauses”; these are the contracts Ticketmaster bullies venues into signing that prevent them from working with other ticket sellers, thereby removing Ticketmaster’s need to compete for customers. According to the DoJ complaint, Ticketmaster’s exclusivity clauses last as long as 14 years and currently cover more than 75 percent of ticket sales at major concert venues.

Department of Justice

Secret Deal Fees

The economic development system of New York state is a wretched hive of scum and villainy that transfers billions of dollars every year from the public to individual corporations. A new report by Reinvent Albany and Good Jobs First shows how New York law firms funnel campaign contributions into regions where they’re hired to facilitate, and therefore receive a cut of, these corporate subsidy deals. From 2017 to 2022, just two upstate law firms received $29 million to $39 million in undisclosed deal-closing fees — giving them millions of reasons to continue backing policymakers who will keep the deal dollars flowing.

Reinvent Albany/Good Jobs First

Big Tech, Big Lobbying

A group of Big Tech firms led by Meta and Google has spent $823,235 lobbying against a pair of bills in New York state that would prevent social media platforms from selling the data of children to advertisers without parental consent and from using algorithms to suggest new content to minors. That’s a lot of spending at the state level, and it’s expected to go even higher, surpassing $1 million before the New York legislative session ends next month.

Thomas Barrabi, New York Post

Bears Stadium Deal Hibernates

Illinois lawmakers don’t intend to advance a plan to spend an estimated $2 billion in public money on a new stadium for the NFL’s Chicago Bears this spring, according to several high profile state legislators. This is great news for taxpayers, as stadium subsidy deals consistently fail to provide benefits to the public. But it may also be a temporary reprieve, as the plan seems likely to wake up and lumber back onto the legislative to-do list in the fall.

Dan Petrella and Jeremy Gorner, Chicago Tribune

Perhaps Hospital Monopolies Are Bad

Ballad Health, a 20-hospital health care monopoly that serves more than 1 million residents across Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina, consistently receives approval to keep operating from the Tennessee Department of Health, even though it fails to meet most of its regulatory targets when it comes to providing actual health care. Ballad has missed 75 percent of its quality goals, in areas “including surgery complications, emergency room speed and patient satisfaction.” The Federal Trade Commission has been warning states against using the regulatory framework that allows Ballad to exist when a hospital of its size would normally run afoul of antitrust law.

Brett Kelman, KFF Health News

Here Comes the Sun — Wait, Never Mind

Dozens of solar power projects have been downsized or halted across Virginia due to the state’s dominant monopoly utility, Dominion Energy, changing the rules midstream and requiring much more expensive grid connection equipment. These new costs can increase project budgets by 20 percent to 40 percent, putting them out of reach of many of the low-income communities and schools that had solar plans in the pipeline. The State Corporation Commission, which regulates Dominion, has waffled on whether it will allow Dominion to continue making these demands. 

Jim Morrison, Washington Post

Follow Pat’s work here:

Boondoggle Corporations are ripping off our states, cities, and communities. Find out why and how to stop it. By Pat Garofalo

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