Apparently Boeing did not pay attention to the Cascade Policy Institute, FreedomWorks and the Oregon GOP. The passage of Measure 67 means that Oregon is a bad place for business, that our taxes will destroy jobs and that companies will flee Oregon for the greener pastures of Washington, Idaho and Illinois. Boeing did not get the memo:

Boeing Co. plans to pour up to $120 million into its Gresham operation, replacing a 30-year old chemical processing plant and adding 152 jobs in the next three years.

Delicious irony: Boeing’s headquarters? Chicago. Mayor Daley’s city. Mayor Daley who welcomed the passage of Measure 67 (kind of weird for a Democrat who depends on labor for much of his support) because it was going to help his city:

“It will help (Chicago’s) economic development immediately,” Daley told the Sun-Times. “You’d better believe it. We’ll be out in Oregon enticing corporations to relocate to Chicago. I’ll be very frank. I make no bones about that.”

Something has gone horribly wrong here. Instead of fleeing the state (as the company once fled Washington), Boeing is pouring into its Gresham plant the same amount of money as Measure 67 will collect from all businesses in a single year (the ironies abound). Boeing’s bean-counters seem not to understand that our state’s business tax burden rocketing from 48th most onerous in the nation to 46th means that for only a about half-a-billion dollars, they could, and should, relocate to someplace much more business-friendly.

Which would be nowhere on the West Coast, of course, as both Washington and California have larger tax burdens for business, as does Idaho. There is Alaska and Mississippi, I guess, but the geniuses at Boeing seem to think that investing in an existing plant makes more sense than packing up and leaving. As they have done elsewhere around the nation, including those tax paradises of Washington and California. The deal to stay in Gresham involves 8-years worth of tax abatements, but that’s part of the costs of having a major employer in your jurisdiction; an additional 152 jobs is likely to offset that expense in both local spending and taxes.

Unless any of those employees are foolish enough to accept a job that pays more than $125,000 a year, in which case Measure 66 is sure to drive them to move to Washington where they can trade income taxes for property taxes. A very attractive proposal, no doubt.

So thanks, Oregonians and your skanky unions, liberals and grassroots activists. Your actions not only helped stop the necessary destruction of public services like schools and health care for the elderly and home-bound ill, theyNote (Boeing ignores M67), 6 Mar 2010, 09:30 did nothing to stop a major employer from adding more jobs and local construction spending.

You must be really proud of yourselves now.