North Baton Rouge doesn’t have high-end retail shopping centers or fancy restaurants. There are no movie theaters. The hospital has been shuttered. Instead of traditional grocers, there are convenience stores fueled by alcohol sales. Community leaders have dubbed it a “food desert” for its dearth of healthy food options, and elected officials have for years cried out for economic development measures that would stir job growth.

The area, which includes neighborhoods like Scotlandville and Glen Oaks, has East Baton Rouge Parish’s highest concentration of families below the poverty line and the lowest household incomes. It’s among the poorest urban areas in the state.

“Giving Away Louisiana” is an eight-part series that examines the tax incentives the state gives to boost a historically sluggish economy. It’s not always clear the money is well spent, and the giveaways are growing at a much faster rate than the economy, leading to deep cuts in other state services. Click here to recap all parts of the series.

The program, which has cost the state an average of $69 million a year for the past five years, more often than not pays businesses to set up shop in wealthy areas. It gives hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax credits, and sometimes millions, to some of the largest companies in the nation, among them Wal-Mart, a company often rapped for offering low-paying jobs with few benefits.

Since 2011, for instance, the state has approved nearly $700,000 in tax credits for Wal-Mart to build new stores in Covington and Mandeville, two of Louisiana’s most affluent suburbs. In Baton Rouge’s Perkins Rowe retail and residential district, where a one-bedroom apartment can rent for $1,500 a month, shops that got Enterprise Zone tax credits include Anthropologie, Fresh Market and Urban Outfitters.

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