By Alwyn Scott/Reuters
SEATTLE – A dispute over $8.7 billion in Washington state tax breaks is heating up after Chicago-based Boeing joined a new lobbying group set up to preserve the industry incentives, the biggest in U.S. history.
The group opposes efforts to make the aerospace tax breaks, passed in 2013, dependent on Boeing maintaining minimum employment levels in the state.
Such “claw-back” bills had failed the past two years, but union leaders and a lawmaker said in interviews on Tuesday they planned to try again in the legislative session that started this week.
The new group, Aerospace Works for Washington, will be a “megaphone” to warn that jobs are at risk, said Lake Forest native Maud Daudon, chief executive of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, which is leading the effort.
“We are in a competition to keep them here,” she said. “Any state in the country would die to get these jobs.”
The group also may oppose European Union efforts to eliminate the incentives under World Trade Organization rules, and may try to extend them to Washington’s growing space industry, Daudon said.
Boeing, the world’s biggest commercial aircraft maker, has its largest factories in Washington, and is the state’s largest private employer, with 72,000 workers.
As with previous proposals, “Boeing is opposed to any effort to alter the Washington aerospace tax incentives,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Changing the parameters of the incentives now would simply increase the cost of building airplanes in this state, and unnecessarily put excellent, family-wage jobs in Washington at risk.”
SEEKING JOB GUARANTEES
Aerospace Works for Washington has more than 30 members, including elected leaders, economic development organizations and chambers of commerce from state regions where aerospace manufacturers have factories. It includes trade groups of retailers, restaurants, hotels and other industries.
Alaska Airlines, owned by Alaska Air Group Inc., is also a member. No labor groups are involved.
Daudon said the broad membership signals growing opposition to changing the incentives.
Union leaders said their members still support the tax breaks “as long as Boeing doesn’t ship jobs out of state,” said Larry Brown, legislative director for the International Association of Machinists, District 751.
The 2013 tax cuts were designed to “maintain and grow” aerospace employment in the state and are available to any local aerospace manufacturer.
Since the law passed, Boeing has eliminated 11,414 jobs in Washington, about 15 percent of its state workforce, the company’s employment data showed.
In the year through November 2016, the state lost 5,500 manufacturing jobs, largely in aerospace, according to state employment security department data.
Boeing said in December that job cuts and movements were necessary to respond to competition from European rival Airbus and years of constricted U.S. defense spending.
Boeing said it fulfilled its commitment in the 2013 law to locate the assembly line and wing factory for its new 777X jetliner in the state.
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Previously in Boeing:
* $3.1 Billion In Profits, Pays $0 In Illinois Income Taxes. (Item No. 5)
* Boeing Effective Tax Rate: -1.4 Percent. (Item: In America, Boeing Taxes Us)
* Boeing Uses Surveillance On Union Activity.
* Boeing’s Job Cuts Lead To Questions About State Subsidies.
* Boeing Refuses To Disclose Any State Department-Clinton Foundation E-Mails.
* Boeing Plans To Finish Some 737s In China.
* Boeing Accepts FAA Penalties Over Quality Control.
* Boeing Pledges $1 Million For Donald Trump’s Inaugural Events.
Previously in tax scammage:
* Deepwater Horizon Settlement Comes With $5.35 Billion Tax Windfall.
* Offshoring By 29 Companies Costs Illinois $1.2 Billion Annually.
* Government Agencies Allow Corporations To Write Off Billions In Federal Settlements.
* The Gang Of 62 Vs. The World.
* How The Maker Of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing.
* $1.4 Trillion: Oxfam Exposes The Great Offshore Tax Scam Of U.S. Companies.
* How Barclay’s Turned A $10 Billion Profit Into A Tax Loss.
* Wall Street Stock Loans Drain $1 Billion A Year From German Taxpayers.
* German Finance Minister Cries Foul Over Tax Avoidance Deals.
* Prosecutor Targets Commerzbank For Deals That Dodge German Taxes.
* A Schlupfloch Here, A Schlupfloch There. Now It’s Real Money.
* How Milwaukee Landlords Avoid Taxes.
* Study: 32 Illinois Fortune 500 Companies Holding At Least $147 Billion Offshore.
* Watch Out For The Coming Tax Break Trickery.
* When A ‘Tax Bonanza’ Is Actually A Huge Corporate Tax Break.
* The Hypocrisy Of Corporate Welfare: It’s Bigger Than Trump.
* Oxfam Names World’s Worst Tax Havens Fueling ‘Global Race To Bottom.’
* Offshore Tax Havens Cost Average Illinois Small Business $5,789 A Year.
Previously in the Panama Papers:
* The Panama Papers: Remarkable Global Media Collaboration Cracks Walls Of Offshore Tax Haven Secrecy.
* The Panama Papers: Prosecutors Open Probes.
* The [Monday] Papers.
* Adventures In Tax Avoidance.
* Mossack Fonseca’s Oligarchs, Dictators And Corrupt White-Collar Businessmen.
* Jonathan Pie, TV Reporter! They’re All In It Together.
* Meet The Panama Papers Editor Who Handled 376 Reporters In 80 Countries.
Previously in carried interest:
* Patriotic Millionaires Vs. Carried Interest.
* The Somewhat Surreal Politics Of A Private Equity Tax Loophole Costing Us Billions (That Obama Refused To Close Despite Pledging To Do So).
* Fact-Checking Trump & Clinton On The Billionaire’s Tax Break.
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Comments welcome.
Posted on January 18, 2017