This chart from the Washington Department of Revenue shows the incredible amounts of tax benefits Washington State gives to major corporations.

In 2017, Washington gave $56 million to Amazon. Since then, it has threatened the Seattle City Council that it would stop construction in the city and abandon office space if it passed a head tax which would take 0.26 percent of its profits. After the council folded to its demands, it moved jobs away anyway..

Boeing received billions of dollars in incentives to stay in Washington, but then moved its headquarters to Chicago and has shed local jobs at an alarming rate. Boeing received tax exemptions worth almost $800 million in 2014, 2015, and 2016, yet shed over 10,000 jobs during this same time period. Boeing received from our state $77,000 for every job that the company took away from our state.

Taxes improve our schools, fix our roads, and support people who find themselves unemployed or unable to find housing. Benefits to some of the world’s wealthiest corporations impede the state’s abilities to care for its citizens and often do not to lead to better jobs.