Let’s remember when Jay Inslee signed an $8 billion tax cut for Boeing, on this day in 2013 (November 11)
“Look, if you’ve ever been mugged, you understand what it feels like,” is what Washington Governor Jay Inslee said about the $8.7 billion tax cut he gave Boeing in 2013 to Trevor Noah earlier this year. It has, so far, been the biggest embarrassment of his tenure as governor. And the result was so predictable.
As this LA Times headline put it in 2017: “Boeing got a record tax break from Washington state and cut jobs anyway.”
Inslee expressed regret at being extorted by Boeing when he was a presidential candidate, but when it happened in 2013, he struck a different tone.
The AP reported:
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee gave final approval Monday to a package of tax breaks for Boeing Co. in hopes of landing the company’s new 777X, signing legislation at Seattle’s Museum of Flight at Boeing Field.
Boeing has sought the tax benefits — valued at $9 billion through 2040 — and a broad new contract with machinists as part of a long-term deal to build the 777X in the Puget Sound. In unusual swiftness, lawmakers returned to Olympia last week for a special session dedicated to Boeing, approving the legislation ahead of the union vote.
Even after the World Trade Organization ruled the tax break illegal in 2016, Inslee was continuing to insist it was the right thing to do. He said, in a statement:
Three years ago, lawmakers passed, on a bipartisan basis, a package of legislation that resulted in the Boeing 777X being assembled in Washington state, ensuring the health of the Washington aerospace industry and sustaining jobs in our state. That was the right thing to do for our state’s economic future and it still is.
Inslee can claim it’s a “mugging,” or whatever, but the reality is that Boeing wanted some free money from Washington state and knew there was no politician willing to tell them no.
Sources:
