David Cay Johnston is an investigative journalist forThe New York Times who has focussed on the subjectof taxation. He most recently published book FreeLunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves atGovernment Expense and Stick You With The Bill, is anexpose of hidden subsidies, rigged markets, and what hasbeen called corporate socialism. It follows his previousPerfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our TaxSystem to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat EverybodyElse, which was a a New York Times bestseller.Johnston received the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for BeatReporting "for his penetrating and enterprisingreporting that exposed loopholes and inequities in theU.S. tax code, which was instrumental in bringing aboutreforms." Prior to joining the New York Times in 1995,he's worked for various major daily papers around thecountry and studied economics at the university ofChicago and elsewhere. He now lives in Rochester, NewYork area where he spoke on Februrary 16th at an eventsponsored by the Rochester Labor Lyceum, which haspresented public talks and debates on topics of laborand social justice since 1897.How the Walmart family gets a deal where all the sales tax they take in goes NOT to the state, but to Walmart. It goes into bonds which pay for their land, which then then get property tax abatements on.
