TEST - Support tax incentive accountability
Washington State Legislators

Take action!
Tax incentives must protect jobs and wages!
SPEEA and the Machinists are working together to have Washington's tax incentive accountability law amended to meet the original intent of the law - to maintain and enhance our state's aerospace industry and workforce - not incentivize companies to send our work and jobs away. Awaiting action in the House Finance Committee are HB 2147, sponsored by Rep. June Robinson (D-38th) which will tie tax incentives to maintaining jobs and HB 1786, sponsored by Rep. Mia Gregerson (D-33rd) which addresses the need to increase wages within the aerospace supplier network.
Complete the form with your information to ensure your letter is sent to the Senator and Representatives who represent you in Olympia. Send the standard message or edit it to include your personal message of support.
To:
Washington State Legislators
From:
[Your Name]
As a constituent in your district, I write today to ask for your immediate support for HB 2147 to tie Washington’s $8.7 billion aerospace tax incentive to keeping jobs in our state and HB 1786 which addresses the need to ensure those jobs provide a living wage for aerospace workers.
The legislature has changed the aerospace tax incentives many times since they were first enacted in 2003 – mostly expansions of eligibility for the aerospace industry. In 2013, the legislature added an intent to maintain and grow good aerospace jobs in Washington and narrow contingencies tied to 777X final assembly and wing assembly.
However, unlike Missouri, South Carolina and other states, there are no requirements in Washington’s law to ensure our aerospace tax incentives support the growth of good jobs in Washington.
Since the November 2013 aerospace tax preference extension, employment at Boeing facilities in Washington is down by more than 2,500 workers. Boeing has laid-off hundreds of aerospace workers – with more layoffs in the near future. In total, Boeing has announced plans to move more than 6,000 technical and design jobs out of Washington to other states or overseas. These are jobs that support the production and innovation of the future. These jobs are critical to Washington’s economy.
Meanwhile, thousands of aerospace production workers are making wages they can barely survive on. Nearly a third of non-Boeing aerospace production workers make less than $15 an hour – a proportion that has remained fairly consistent over the past five years despite the rising cost of living, the general recovery in the economy and the soaring profits in the industry.
Our aerospace industry benefits from the most generous tax incentive in United States’ history while high-skill aerospace jobs are deliberately moved out of state and wages are held down, at some suppliers to poverty levels.
Act now to amend the aerospace tax incentive to require jobs and good wages. Other states have done it. Washington can too. Ensuring companies supported by this public investment keep and grow well-paid aerospace jobs in Washington is critical to our state’s economy, families and communities. Washington citizens expected that from the tax incentives. It’s time to make it happen.
If you are already supporting these efforts you have my sincere thanks.
Sincerely,