Wednesday, January 20, 2016

The Great GE Taxpayer SCAM!




GE BOSTON DEAL: THE MISSING MANUAL

 By 
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Image by Kent Buckley

The saga of GE’s flight from Connecticut began with the June 2015 passage of a very much needed package of state tax increases aimed at raising an extra $1.1 billion over the next two years. By extending a temporary 20 percent surcharge on its corporate profits tax and by implementing a more straightforward way of calculating corporate taxes, the Constitution State expects to pull in $700 million of that total from major corporations. The money will be used to fund social programs and improve mass transit. Imagine that.

GE brass immediately flipped out. And followed through on a threat to move their headquarters out of Connecticut. They began publicly courting cities around the US to get the best possible deal. Boston moved to the front of the pack by the fall. Then last week, GE officially announced that they would be moving their HQ to the Hub—specifically the so-called “Innovation District” on our soon-to-be-flooded waterfront.

What followed has been one of the most disgusting spectacles of press release transcription by the Boston mainstream news media in memory. Fulsome praise was lavished on Gov. Charlie Baker, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, and their busy lieutenants like John Barros for literally selling out the people of this city and this Commonwealth. A massive giveaway of $25 million in city “property tax relief” and $120 million in state “grants, tax incentives, infrastructure improvements, and help with real estate acquisition costs” to GE was treated as if it was the product of genius, rather than another nail in the coffin of democracy. The record of one of the most vicious and capricious corporations in world history was soft pedaled by focusing on the supposed benefits of the deal to the people of the Bay State. Which are … what exactly? The 800 predominantly transplanted jobs at the new GE Boston HQ? The up to 600 jobs at the new Marlborough branch of GE Healthcare Life Sciences by 2017? The assertion that the company will “base a new division, focused on lighting and energy, in a to-be-announced location in the Boston area” at some point? Airy claims about GE’s presence attracting other businesses to the state? Blather about “corporate philanthropy to the arts?” And something about “bragging rights?”

Stuff and nonsense. For starters, the vast majority of jobs that will be created locally by GE in the coming years will be professional/managerial level. Worked by the kinds of helicopter yuppies that will then buy some of the expensive condos that are being built all over the region. These few new jobs are not the jobs that are needed. They are not the tens of thousands of regular jobs that are going to help get beleaguered working and middle class families back on their feet after the economic depredations of the last 40-plus years. Depredations that GE pioneered.

The company had 13,000 mostly unionized workers in Pittsfield, MA decades back. Last fall, the Saudi Arabian-owned remnant of the former GE plastics division based there announced that it was leaving for Houston and taking the last significant group of ex-GE jobs, 300 in total, with it. GE had over 12,000 mostly unionized workers in Lynn, MA as recently as the early 1980s. Now there are about 1,400 unionized workers left, and 3,000 workers overall. GE closed its plant in Fitchburg, MA in 1998—taking 600 good jobs with it. GE is closing its Avon, MA plant later this year. Another 300 jobs gone. Cuts that devastated a number of communities, and contaminated the Housatonic River around Pittsfield with PCBs that GE is still fighting to avoid fully cleaning up—an issue capably reviewed by International Business Times last week.

Over the past year, GE leadership has continued such labor “innovations” by cutting medical and life insurance benefits to all non-unionized retirees over 65 on January 1, 2015. And cutting the same benefits to all unionized retirees over 65 at the start of this year. Tossing a mere thousand bucks a year to tens of thousands of GE retirees around the country and telling them to buy their own supplemental medical plans somehow.

Given this disturbing backstory, the claim by feckless pols that property taxes and other taxes that GE will eventually have to pay Boston and Massachusetts will soon outstrip the $145 million being handed to them beggars belief. GE is a vast corporate behemoth that employs hundreds of tax specialists to avoid paying any taxes at all. According to Citizens for Tax Justice, between 2010 and 2014, GE earned $33.5 billion in profits but claimed federal tax refunds of $1.4 billion—an effective tax rate of -4.3 percent. And paid a combined state tax bill of only $530 million—an effective state tax rate of just 1.6 percent for the period.

This is GE. This is the corporate scofflaw that Charlie and Marty and their many business buddies cut a bad deal with. Now what are readers going to do to stop it and #makeGEpay?

Apparent Horizon is syndicated by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. Jason Pramas is BINJ’s network director.

Copyright 2015 Jason Pramas. Licensed for use by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and media outlets in its network.


Here’s the signed agreement the city, state used to woo GE


A few comments below:


Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism's photo.


 It's unconscionable. Marty Walsh, I'm surprised at your support. Baker, it's a given. Tax breaks for the wealthy and the corps. It's bad enough that GE somehow gets away without paying Federal Taxes.

 I was at the 5PM public hearing about the termination of late night MBTA service tonight. I went up to the mic and said "the state is prepared to give GE, one of the most ethically bankrupt companies in the world, $145 million in tax breaks and so forth to move to Boston, and we're here talking about $200 million MBTA budget deficits and cutting late night service. That's an obscenity."

Gotta tell it like it is.

  Unfortunately telling it like it is, as much as I appreciate it in this article and in your action, Mick, seem to be sound & fury signifying nothing so far..... We need some concrete steps to pull the rug out from under these white collar crooks & sleeze-bags.

 The General Electric Aviation facility released 1,000 pounds of toxic chemical waste into the Saugus River in Lynn, Massachusetts in 2007. The Saugus River is ranked 3rd in the state for most toxic chemicals discharged in 2007. http://environmentmassachusetts.org/.../over-230-million...



Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism

In this week's Apparent Horizon column, BINJ's Jason Pramas slams Boston's latest corporate boondoggle: A massive giveaway of $25 million in city “property tax relief” and $120 million in state “grants, tax incentives, infrastructure improvements, and help with real estate acquisition costs” to GE was treated as if it was the product of genius, rather than another nail in the coffin of democracy.
GE BOSTON DEAL: THE MISSING MANUAL
GE BOSTON DEAL: THE MISSING MANUAL
DIGBOSTON.COM



Another Taxpayer SCAM!
Profitable GE pays NO TAXES!
Have they even cleaned up their PCB disaster?
PLEASE REMEMBER THE SILVER LINE IS FREE!
Tea Bagger Baker's Cut & Slash Buddies are raising fares, cutting late night service that will effect low wage workers who work nights, taking the PUBLIC out of PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION and MORE SILVER LINE SERVICE????

the saddest part of this is that supposedly progressive leaders are hailing the GE deal as a win...alas... the anger spurs me on...back to work



Millions pledged for Northern Avenue Bridge as part of General Electric relocation deal - The...
Tucked in the agreement to bring General Electric Co.’s global headquarters to Boston is a commitment from the city to spend as much as $100 million…
BOSTONGLOBE.COM



Historic waterfront span may be rebuilt as part of GE deal


Seaport improvements are weighed ahead of GE arrival



By  GLOBE STAFF  


Tucked in the agreement to bring General Electric Co.’s global headquarters to Boston is a commitment from the city to spend as much as $100 million to reopen the Old Northern Avenue Bridge, while the state will kick in $25 million to improve roads, pedestrian walkways, and bike lanes throughout the Seaport District.

The money, city and state officials said Tuesday, is beyond what they publicly pledged to encourage the industrial conglomerate to relocate about 800 employees from its home office in Fairfield, Conn. The GE deal, announced last week, included up to $120 million in state subsidies for property and infrastructure expenses and as much as $25 million in tax breaks from the city.

The city has long wanted to rebuild the Northern Avenue bridge, built in 1908, to make it easier to get around the South Boston Waterfront.

City and state officials, who declined to be identified because the full GE agreement has not been publicly released, said they decided to allocate money for the bridge and other projects along the South Boston Waterfront to make their bid as attractive as possible.

The spending also would attempt to address an Achilles heel in the Seaport district — traffic — that worsened as the neighborhood emerged as one of the nation’s hottest real estate markets.

Rick Dimino, who runs A Better City, a transportation advocacy group, has been sounding the alarm as the district’s meteoric rise has outpaced its capacity to handle the throng of new companies and employees. The forecast: Over the next two decades, transit trips alone will grow by 64 percent and car traffic by 27 percent.
“The city and state putting resources regarding the GE decision is a huge step in the right direction,” said Dimino, whose group managed a coalition of city and state agencies that together issued a report last year on the district’s transportation needs. “Infrastructure investment will need to go hand-in-hand in filling out the rest of the South Boston Waterfront.”
The city shuttered the Old Northern Avenue Bridge in December of 2014 after deeming it structurally unsafe to carry even pedestrians. The rusty steel bridge, which swings sideways to let marine traffic pass, is beloved by preservationists. It connected the Financial District to the South Boston Waterfront.
The city-owned bridge has been closed to vehicles for two decades. Over the years, there have been a half-dozen proposals to redevelop the bridge. Since it was closed, last year’s abrupt closure,the Walsh administration has been reviewing several options to fix the bridge that range in cost from about $30 million to more than $70 million. If the bridge could be reopened to cars, pedestrians, and bicyclists, it could go a long way to relieving congestion in the Seaport.
City officials would not say how they plan to pay for the bridge but added they were confident enough to include the project in the GE package.
Sam Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a fiscal watchdog, said he is also confident about the city’s ability to foot the bill. He noted that the city could take out bonds, find a way to wrangle some federal and state dollars, and even tap a portion of the city’s $106.7 million parking meter fund. That money is for parking meter purchases and maintenance but can be used for other transportation-related expenses, too.
“GE coming to Boston probably made it a necessary improvement. It moved up the list,” Tyler said.
But given the traffic woes of the district, fixing the bridge is something the city had to address soon.
“It’s almost a situation they can’t afford not to do,” Tyler said. “It was going to be necessary, GE or no GE.”
Greg Galer, executive director of the Boston Preservation Alliance, whose group has been worried about the future of the bridge, cheered the city’s efforts to move forward. Still, the alliance would like to see a “preservation-minded” reconstruction and repair of the bridge.
“I can think of no better example of the Northern Avenue representing evolution of both GE and Boston, from the transformation of old industry to modern high tech,’’ he said. “The bridge would serve as the gateway to the Innovation District.”
City officials could not say when they would begin a formal public process to vet bridge plans but added it would begin this year.
For its part, the state plans to commit about $25 million for infrastructure improvements near the new GE headquarters, according to the Baker administration.
Boston beat out 40 competitors to become the new global headquarters for GE. The company began looking for a new home in June after Connecticut lawmakers proposed to raise corporate taxes.
In their seven-month courtship, Boston and Massachusetts officials pushed the idea that the region’s innovation economy would be a good fit for the century-old industrial giant trying to remake itself as a high-tech firm. By October, the GE search committee had begun to focus on properties in the Seaport District, lured by a mix of old warehouse buildings and gleaming towers all set along the waterfront.
The company has not yet picked a location for its headquarters but has been considering two Seaport sites, one on Summer Street and another on land owned by the Massachusetts Port Authority. Both are a fair distance from the Northern Avenue bridge, bolstering the idea that additional public funds are designed to benefit the district, not just one company.
The state is preparing to offer a menu of options that will narrow as planners look more closely at the needs of the area. For example, funds could go toward straightening intersections, increasing the frequency of service on MBTA Silver Line routes in the area, and designating more bicycle lanes.

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