For years, government has bent over backwards to give huge tax breaks to the world's biggest polluters. It's time for that to end.

While allies of big industry extol tax breaks as an effective and necessary tool for economic development, the fact is that the benefits remain largely unquantified while the many detriments are perfectly plain.

These include lost revenue for vital public services; tilting the playing field in favor of large, multinational corporations while small and local businesses face a higher tax burden; and trading off local investments in sustainable, long-term strategies for economic growth for uncertain short-term gains.

It's also unclear that tax breaks actually serve their stated purpose, with studies and business leaders suggesting they are a minor factor among many others considered when making location decisions.

Perhaps most importantly, because tax breaks are often negotiated behind closed doors and lack a review mechanism to ensure that all promised jobs and wages are in fact delivered, their true cost and benefit typically remain a mystery.

But when tax breaks are given to corporate polluters who put the health and safety of the communities where they operate at risk, the only real question is just how outraged taxpayers should be.