Editorials / Opinion

The Seattle Times editorial “Extend data center tax breaks” [Opinion, May 19) expresses support for tax breaks to Microsoft and Boeing. It implies that wage earners, not shareholders, should pay the costs of government. As you point out, our Legislature and governor granted Boeing an $8.7 billion tax break for fear Boeing would abandon its…

Dominic Gates’ article “Big bucks in moving Boeing engineers” [Business/Technology, April 26] is another brick in the demise of Boeing in the Pacific Northwest. In the 1970s and 1980s, the auto industry left the Detroit area to lower-cost states in the U.S. and to low-wage countries. While it may have taken decades for Detroit…

Boeing management’s “engineering work transfer” plans will leave the Puget Sound with an abundance of unused, highly skilled, senior engineering talent [“Boeing CEO defends shifting engineering jobs,” Business/Technology, April 23]. With our concentration of venture dollars, and with the many entrepreneurial leaders spun from our multi-faceted technology economy, it seems only logical that some…

Defense of past failures seems to be Boeing’s mantra these days [“Boeing CEO defends shifting engineering jobs,” Business/Technology, April 23]. Boeing success is a result of a dedicated and highly qualified workforce of talented engineers and assembly workers. Yet, the remotely located “senior management” in Chicago gloss over a number of their mistakes: a three year…

Corrected version Boeing’s Groundhog Day is coming again [“Boeing managers say transfer of engineer jobs damaging talent, morale,” Business/Technology, April 15]. Remember all the grandiose expectations when Boeing production was moved to South Carolina? Low wages, but high quality to continue. Several years later: many delays, poor quality, canceled contracts and Boeing is still struggling…

I read with dismay and deep anger in The Seattle Times that Boeing will pull 1000 engineering jobs out of our state [“Boeing moving 1,000 more engineering jobs to California,” Business/Technology, April 10]. As a retired public-school teacher, this hurts me deeply in two ways. First, my state Legislature agreed to grant Boeing almost 9…

Boeing won’t be paying any taxes this year [“Boeing has big tax refund coming from Uncle Sam — again,” seattletimes.com, March 1].

Instead, by deferring tax payments, it will be getting a $199 million refund. It’s not alone; many corporations are avoiding taxes altogether through loopholes. In the Senate there is a bill that would close corporate tax loopholes that allow multinational corporations to hide their profits overseas to avoid paying taxes, and we should encourage Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell to champion it.

At least 82 of the top 100 publicly traded companies in America use tax havens like the Cayman Islands. Offshore tax dodging amounts to $150 billion a year in lost revenue — costing the average small business in Washington $3,616 extra each year, according to WashPIRG data. Small businesses, like individual taxpayers, are obligated to pay their taxes, so why should multinational corporations get off the hook?

Messing with the well-being of city employees

In The Seattle Times’ Business section aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia warns that Boeing is running big risks in forcing major concessions from its unions [“Analyst Aboulafia lauds 777X, berates Boeing for creating ‘ill will', Business/Technology, Feb. 6].

He comments, “If you don’t have the workers on your team working with you and feeling good, you’ve lost a big chunk of the battle.” It is well known that the forced concession angering Boeing machinists is the substitution of a 401(k) plan for their defined-benefit pension.

Yet, on the following page, former State Auditor Brian Sonntag suggests that Seattle might do well to follow this same path with our city employees [“Seattle’s pension system is unsustainable,” Opinion, Feb. 5]. Do we really want those supplying our essential city services, many of whom make considerably less than Boeing workers, to work for us feeling they are no longer respected players on our city team?

Edith Ruby, Seattle

Realities of retirement planning do not reflect rhetoric

What if everyone who has a mortgage had to make all of their future payments right now? It would not be surprising to find that the total sum could not be paid if the amount owed on those mortgages “came due all at once.” Although this is what former State Auditor Brian Sonntag presents as a problem, it is not what happens with mortgages, nor does it happen with pension obligations.

Pensions not a dirty word

Danny Westneat raises a seemingly valid concern when he writes, “If doing away with pensions was so critical for the health of a private company making record profits, then why not for a cash-strapped state?” ["Boeing puts all pensions at risk,” NWTuesday, Jan. 7]

But then I remembered: Government was never intended to be a for-profit enterprise.

Rob Curran and other Machinists before the 777X contract vote last week in South Park. (Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times).

Where’s the parity between executives and Machinists?

Boeing workers pumped out more jets in 2013 than ever before [“Boeing’s 2013 deliveries soar to record despite 787 woes,” Business, Jan. 6]. Jet sales were the second highest in company history. Sales are up, profits are up, and Boeing stock is up.

Chief Executive Officer Jim McNerney’s annual salary is up 20 percent to $27.5 million and his pension increased dramatically as well.