Microsoft and Boeing convinced Gregoire to back a costly tunnel, but they avoid paying state taxes

In Road Kill: How Bertha Left the Surface-Street Option In the Dust, Ellis E. Conklin reports that “Powerful interests rallied around the tunnel and diverted then-Governor Gregoire from a less costly route.”

Specifically, “The downtown business interests, the Chamber of Commerce, Boeing, the unions, they all wanted a highway, period. Nothing was going to stop them.”

Washburn concedes that Boeing and Microsoft, in particular, pressed their case for the tunnel with Gov. Gregoire. “Certainly, they had an interest for obvious reasons, being able to move their product and their people.’ But Washburn stressed that any pressure that they, or the Chamber, exerted was no more aggressive than anyone else’s.

“No,” counters Moon [an opponent of the tunnel], “their voice was always louder than ours.”

So, these two immensely rich companies arrange to avoid paying state taxes, hire employees from overseas, and get you and me to subsidize their transportation needs.

See Corporate welfare for Microsoft,  Boeing exempt from sales tax, Tax-subsidized Boeing Co. snubs state again,  Microsoft Admits Keeping $92 Billion Offshore to Avoid Paying $29 Billion in US Taxes, Microsoft’s Staggering Tax Dodge Alone Would Fund the Entire State of Washington for Two Years .