And now the machinists have voted their contract in because they were fools, or maybe for their own good, or maybe because they saw the writing on the wall, or maybe because of the bonus, or maybe they’re afraid. Who knows? What I do want to know is when do we voters get to ratify or reject all the tax breaks Boeing got from our elected officials? I don’t recall anyone running for office on them. But let’s do the math. Without knowing to real number of Boeing jobs and their local suppliers retained, and not counting the “add-on” employment because anyone spending money including those on unemployment, makes those. I suggest a guess of 10,000. After all, they never said the whole company would go. So, $8 billion buys 10,000 for eight years. That’s $100,000 a year per job.
Boeing wasn’t very hot to tally a public vote on this. I didn’t read in our paper any letter writer saying he gladly will pay more taxes for Boeing’s “promise.” And I haven’t seen the actual promise, signed and sealed. What if an oral statement in the paper isn’t quite binding?
Shouldn’t there be a line in our tax bill, “Special levy for Boeing”? I don’t know how many taxpayers there are here, but consider that math. That’s right, How much does it cost me? How much of that $8 billion actually becomes stock prices and profits and bonuses? Yes, we’re addicted to Boeing and they know it. What’s worse, others are lined up with the veins of their state’s arms ballooned out. “Suck my blood, no suck mine, We were here first and we’re soooo business friendly!” Maybe the taxpayers are the real suckers.
Doug Grandpre
Lake Stevens
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