Posted on 11/24/2004 8:55:32 AM PST by truth49
When he assumes office Jan. 12, Attorney General–elect Rob McKenna says, he'll take a new look at the $3.2 billion state tax "incentive" given to Boeing in return for its agreement last year to locate the 7E7 assembly plant in Snohomish County. "There are some outstanding legal issues to review," said McKenna, a King County Council member elected to the state post this month. He wouldn't discuss the issues, but said he opposes any similar tax giveaways. "I don't think we can ever replicate the Boeing package," McKenna, a Republican, said in an interview last Friday, Nov. 19, during the Prosperity Partnership meeting at Qwest Field. "We'd bankrupt ourselves."
Unresolved conflicts surrounding the Boeing giveaway, formulated by Democratic Gov. Gary Locke and approved by the Legislature, include the state's involvement of a consulting firm from Deloitte & Touche. Though Locke never disclosed it publicly, the firm was also Boeing's private consultant and its corporate outside auditor, with a direct financial interest in seeing Boeing get a favorable state deal. Questioned by Seattle Weekly, the governor's office later claimed its contract with Deloitte was vetted by the attorney general's office. But the AG's office denied ever seeing the pact. The governor refused to explain his failure to follow state law (see "Disinterest in Conflict," March 24).
McKenna, as AG, will deal principally with legal and regulatory issues. But during what he characterized as a sort of farewell policy speech at the Prosperity meeting, he told corporate leaders, "We can't continue to cut taxes to get a company to stay here." He was introduced to the audience by Boeing Commercial Airplanes Vice President Bob Watt, who noted, "He's really good at what he does."
See Also:
The Boeing contract and the state's Constitution
http://www.effwa.org/highlighters/v14_n2.php
I would be a lot happier if McKenna's highest priority was to clean out 20 years of Democratic corruption in the political and judicial systems, and clean out the criminals in the King County elections office.
Rob is going to be the best AG this state has ever seen... Give him 6 years as AG and he'll clean this state up... There is no more honest or qualified guy in Washington State politics...
Then in 2010 he'll take a Senate seat...
Don't worry, it is very high on his punch list. I've had several conversations with him about that during the campaign. He's going to do a great job.
Sorry, it's www.wftaft.COM
Truly sorry.
Umm, why not?
Do you work for Alcoa or Airbus
Because you have to make investments in public infrastructure. AG-elect McKenna has supported limiting taxes, however.
Seems like "Beat Up On Boeing" is the popular thing to do right now. Guess these politicians would be happy to see the company go bankrupt and take the U.S. economy right along with it.
The only problem is that Airbus is being heavily subsidized by the Europeans. Would you like to have the aerospace industries controled by the Europeans?
There is a very big agenda behind the beat up on Boeing. That agenda is being driven by the EU. Wonder why?
Its obvious as to why. The EU wants Airbus to be the sole manufacturer of large commercial jetliners. They've publicly stated this on multiple occasions. Not only would this allow them to earn billions of dollars since they'd be a monopoly but the demise of Boeing would destroy the U.S. economy and leave the EU as an economic superpower.
Sorry, last post was to Modok.
You think Airbus would work through public interest advocacy groups in Washington to push for investigations of Boeing and try to do as much damage to Boeing as possible? Would that be hard for Airbus to do that kind of public relations activity?
What do you think of the actions that the Bush administration has taken on this case?
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