Inslee passes up a chance to confront corporate 'blackmail'
Jay Inslee had a chance recently to face his muggers.
He didn’t show up.
It would have been interesting to see if he’s ready to exact a dose of legislative requital from those with whom he seemed to willingly bargain a few years back. The result was what stands as the largest tax break any state has ever given a private company in American history.
Inslee, the two-term Democratic governor who briefly pursued the presidency, signed the deal in 2013 extending the life of some really nice tax incentives to the aerospace industry, chiefly to entice the Boeing Co. to build its new 777X passenger jet in Washington.
Boeing is the state’s largest employer, and a major piston of the state’s economic engine. Inslee, at the time a freshman executive, could ill afford for Washington to lose the competition to one of the other states prostrating themselves in front of the aerospace giant with their own economic gift packages.
Read more: https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/inslee-passes-up-a-chance-to-confront-corporate-blackmail/
I don't necessarily blame the governor for deciding to skip the meeting if he felt nothing productive would come from it.