I would like to register my total disgust at watching the Boeing Company play our state and local politicians like a proverbial fiddle over the last year. It is absolutely sickening to see Gov. Locke, and all of our local elected officials fall all over themselves to throw other people’s money (the taxpayers) at what used to be a private company. With this latest $3.2 billion giveaway, Boeing has become the most voracious hog slopping at the trough of public funds.
To see all of our politicians lined up with toothy grins over this egregious boondoggle, makes this voter want to send them all into the sunset at the next election. The chest-thumping that they have exhibited while committing every man, woman and child of our state’s six million population to forego the benefit of over $500 per person in tax revenues is appalling. All this, for a company that has already poked its finger in our collective eye by moving its corporate headquarters to Chicago, and laying off 30,000 people in the last couple of years. If even 1,600 new jobs are created, the $3.2 billion giveaway equates to a staggering $2 million per job! Would someone please explain to me how I, as the average non-Boeing employee am benefited by this? Possibly an objective review of the deal by The Herald, rather than the newspaper simply acting as the official Boeing cheerleader would be helpful.
There are hundreds or even thousands of other struggling companies and entrepreneurs in Snohomish County that would love to have the same perks as heaped upon the “Lazy B”. Perhaps they should all get in line and demand equal treatment under the law.
One can only wonder: Are our politicians simply blindly naive and terminally gullible, or are they possibly posturing for a few personal perks themselves?
Arlington
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