REPAIRING OUR ANTI-BUSINESS CLIMATE

A lesson in milking a cash cow
Boeing’s success in getting tax breaks sets bad precedent
When Washington Governor Gary Locke gave Boeing nearly $4 billion in incentives to locate its 7E7 assembly in the state, did he know he was helping Boeing provide a case study for businesses all over the country? An "Exclusive Report" by the Carolina Journal's Paul Chesser highlights how Ernst & Young, an international business consulting firm, recently made a presentation to the State Government Affairs Council, detailing how businesses can follow in Boeing's footsteps. "Turning Your State Government Relations Department from a Money Pit into a Cash Cow," Ernst and Young's (E&Y) PowerPoint presentation, is an outline on how businesses can obtain government "incentives" just like Boeing did.

Washington’s business climate is still a problem
Opinion Editorial | April 16, 2004 | Bob Williams
Despite all the signs that Washington’s business climate is in need of serious reform, it took a $715,000 taxpayer-funded contract with a consulting firm to spell it out for Governor Locke, and it would seem Washington’s state officials still haven’t gotten the point. In the quest to win Boeing’s 7E7 final assembly project, the state contracted with Boeing’s own consultant, Deloitte & Touche, to study how Washington compared with other states. While the state’s contract with Deloitte raises many conflict-of-interest issues, the study’s findings demonstrate what any business owner in the state could have told us for free...more

Publications

Boeing deal unmasks true state of business climate
Opinion Editorial | January 28, 2004 | Bob Williams

EFF parries L&I editorial
Press Release | January 15, 2004

UI reforms and unaccountable agencies
Opinion-Editorial | November 12, 2003 | Jason Mercier

Click here for more EFF publications

Resources

Business Matters Series | Executive Summary
There are ten major policy areas that need to be addressed to resolve Washington's anti-business climate. In our ten-part Business Matters series we identify the crucial issues in each of those areas and offer common sense, free market recommendations that will ease punitive restrictions on businesses and allow them to operate freely and productively, creating jobs and bolstering our consumer-driven economy.

Unemployment Insurance: A better way
The idea of having a transitional safety net in case a worker unexpectedly loses his or her job has plenty of merit. But the state's current program to provide this safety net has five major drawbacks that contribute to the problem instead of reducing it.

Washington State Business Journal
Our quarterly journal's purpose is to educate and inform businesses in Washington state of the latest developments in the public policy arena that will directly affect them. We offer and solicit common sense, free-market recommendations that will ease punitive restrictions on businesses and allow them to operate freely and productively, creating jobs and bolstering our consumer-driven economy.

Transportation
Creep, beep, and crawl. Unfortunately, those words are now a regular part of our vocabulary when it comes to transportation. Policymakers at the state and federal level have allowed an unwieldy bureaucracy to stymie innovative solutions to get us off the road sooner and allow us to spend more time with our families.

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org