How can we keep jobs, businesses in Washington?
Mike Brown ends his column with the insightful notion that “it is ironic indeed that the cloud-computing centers that power it are being located elsewhere despite our natural competitive advantages right here at home” [“State must remove barriers that send jobs elsewhere,” Opinion, guest commentary, Dec. 12].
Yes, there is a wealth of vision and leadership of homegrown Washington companies that create the new economy, but when local companies move jobs to Charleston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Oregon, Texas and North Carolina, then it’s hard to argue that our state truly possess natural competitive advantages.
Visionaries often have a bloated sense of entitlement that because their ideas or movements started through them, they should automatically reap the benefits of success that result from their creativity and sweat.
Granted, it’s nice when that happens, but as Brown’s commentary attests, it currently takes more than initial brilliant ideas, especially when barriers block the further progression of those ideas locally. People don’t have time to wait for barriers to be removed; they’ll simply implement stage two of their ideas where costs are cheaper and where there are less hindrances.
It’s no secret that focusing on retaining good jobs and attracting the new jobs of the new economy is absolutely imperative. But the most relevant question is, “How?”
— Steve Goodman, Mountlake Terrace
The right companies will come along soon enough
It’s curious how businessmen like Mike Brown get weak-kneed at the thought of a state or region having to compete on merit for new business and good jobs.
Our challenge isn’t to emulate South Carolina, which attempts to obtain by bribery what it could never win by merit.
South Carolina is doing what a state falls back on when it undervalues and underfunds education for a century or more, isn’t progressive and proactive, and gets tired of always losing to more attractive states — sort of like what eventually happens if everybody thinks like Tim Eyman.
If you believe that less government is better, end corporate welfare. Do the dull stuff — education and infrastructure — but do it just as well as you possibly can.
The right companies will figure out often enough that we’re the best place for them. Else we might wind up beggars like South Carolina.
— Steve Garber, Seattle
Our state’s battle for data centers
Mike Brown recently suggested that the sales tax be eliminated on equipment purchases for data centers.
It sounds like a practical way to create jobs in Washington. With low power rates, our state is an obvious location for data centers. However, the sales tax on equipment is a huge and ongoing cost so many companies build their data centers elsewhere.
Not only is Washington not receiving sales-tax revenue, but the state is forfeiting good-paying jobs.
Other states recognize the economic value of data centers and are aggressively competing for these facilities. Washington must do the same. We don’t need to provide huge economic incentives, we just need to remove barriers, like the sales tax, that make it too expensive for companies to locate here.
Building data centers will help stimulate the economy, increase property-tax revenues and, most important, create good-paying jobs — all without a huge government subsidy.
— Eileen DeArmon, Seattle
This post is part of the IT Innovation series, sponsored by Sun & Intel. Read more at ITInnovation.com.
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