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 incentives by industry ranked agriculture No. 1 with $208 million. The film industry recevied $191 million and tech ranked third with $105 million.
A chunk of the subsidy pie comes to Santa Clara County. Local companies received just over $59 million in incentive program funding in the past 10 years, according to the NYT data.
Not surprisingly, the largest subsidy in all of Santa Clara County went toward technology. SeaMicro received $9.3 million in grants or loans in 2010 alone, the New York Times reported. The second highest recipient was defense tech company Lockheed Martin at $8.33 million in "free services" from 2002 to 2009.
See the top 10 recipients of subsidies in Santa Clara County below:
Incentive Programs Amount Company Type of Grant # of Grants Years Received $9.3 million SeaMicro Grant or Loan 1 2010 $8.33 million Lockheed Martin Free Services 3 2002-2008 $7.59 million Sun Microsystems Free Services 3 2002-2010 $5.41 million Ag-Parts Ltd. Free Services 4 2004-2006 $5.39 million Applied Materials Free Services 4 2003-2009 $3.79 million Employers Group Free Services 8 2004-2009 $3.25 million Center for Employment Training Free Services 7 2002-2009 $2.34 million IBM Free Services 3 2004-2009 $1.79 million JDS Uniphase Free Services 3 2002-2007 $976,185 Hospira Free Services 3 2006-2009