STATE GOVERNMENT
Amid Boeing job cuts, legislators eye tax break accountability
OLYMPIA (May 3, 2017) — The extended special session to approve the state budget has given Washington state legislators a chance to reconsider bills that weren’t approved during the regular session. On Tuesday, the House Finance Committee heard two bipartisan labor-supported bills that would add accountability measures to the state’s lucrative aerospace tax incentives.
“My colleagues and I don’t understand why the company is offloading significant work from the Puget Sound area,” Boeing engineer Mark Friesen testified at Tuesday’s hearing. “I’m in favor of tax incentives, but I’m also in favor of good jobs.”
HB 2145 and HB 2146 have support from dozens of members of their respective caucuses. Both titled the Aerospace Tax Incentive Accountability Act, the bills would amend the aerospace tax incentives — which have already been amended several times since they were enacted in 2003 — to add job conditions resembling those required in other states in order for Boeing to receive tax incentives.
At Tuesday’s hearing, current and recently displaced Boeing employees who support the bills were joined by parents and schoolchildren concerned about school funding, and advocates for good government and equitable tax policies. But for the unions that represent Boeing employees — Machinists (IAM) District Lodge 751 and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace SPEEA/IFPTE 2001 — testimony focused on the thousands of jobs cut by Boeing while the company continues to receive its full tax breaks.
IAM 751 Legislative Director Larry Brown reminded lawmakers that his union strongly supported the aerospace tax incentive extension, but since that time the company has cut almost 13,000 jobs. If you consider the multiplier effect, that’s 36,000 lost jobs, more than the population of Wenatchee.
Jason Chan is a former Boeing wingline mechanic in Renton who now works for IAM 751 to review work transfers from Boeing and to advocate for solutions to keep the jobs in-house. He told the committee that he has watched as Boeing jobs have been shifted to Oregon, Texas, Utah, Missouri, Arizona and South Carolina, as well as Korea, Japan, Mexico and China.
“I spoke with Senator Mark Miloscia (R-Federal Way) about tax incentive accountability and his response was: ‘A deal is a deal’,” Chan said. “I think most people in this room would agree with that — unless you break that deal. When we violate a company policy or our contract, there are repercussions. That’s Boeing’s recourse. When Boeing violates the intent of the incentive extension to grow and maintain aerospace jobs, where is our recourse? That’s why there needs to be tax incentive accountability.”
HB 2145
The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO joins IAM 751 and SPEEA in strongly urging the House Finance Committee to advance these proposals that brings needed accountability to Washington’s aerospace tax preferences.
Watch Tuesday’s hearing on TVW: