Positions Transferred To Other States After WA Gave Major Incentives

In 2013, the State of Washington gave Boeing a package of tax breaks totalling $8.7 billion through 2040. In return, the state apparently assumed that the planemaker would continue to create and provide jobs in the state.

And Boeing has, announcing last year that the company would assemble the 777X airplane in the Puget Sound region. In all, Boeing employs about 79,000 in the Puget Sound, about half its total workforce.

But the company has also laid off some engineers, and transferred other employees to South Carolina, Missouri, California, and Oklahoma, according to a report from Fox News, and that has Washington State lawmakers asking if Boeing has reneged on its deal. One state representative, June Robinson (D), says Boeing has "double dipped" into the tax incentive pool by accepting incentives from Washington and other states. “We gave them a large tax incentive with the understanding jobs would be created in the state of Washington,” she said.

A Boeing spokesman said that such "claw-backs" are harmful to the states that try to get them. The spokesman said that aerospace companies need to have the ability to "respond nimbly to competitive threats," and that such actions make companies question whether states will stand behind laws that have been passed.

One industry analyst, Scott Hamilton of Leehman Co., told Fox News that the Washington State legislature should look in the mirror when placing blame. Hamilton said that the legislature did not require any quid pro quo for granting the tax breaks, a move he called a "bonehead mistake."

FMI: www.boeing.com, http://leg.wa.gov/