Comments on Advance Indiana™: Pence Confirms That Indiana Is Among 15 States Bidding To Land $10 Billion Boeing Plant

Indy Rob, the vast majority of jobs in the aerospa...

2013-12-17T21:15:53.895-05:00

Indy Rob, the vast majority of jobs in the aerospace industry are high paying because of education and training requirements. Therefore until shown otherwise, the assumption must be that these are high-paying jobs. I'm as pro-union as anyone and I hate right-to-work, but more than anything else Indiana needs high-paying jobs. You can't turn your nose up at it because someone might be making money off of it.

Jeff, if they truly are high paying jobs for lots ...

2013-12-17T18:07:57.451-05:00

Jeff, if they truly are high paying jobs for lots of Hoosiers, I would be foolish to argue against Boeing coming here, but what I am seeing is that for a relatively small number of jobs in a right-to-work state (IE a state that is actively anti-union) is yet another company refusing to pay its share of business taxes while demanding that the state's other taxpayers pay for the required infrastructure and services.

The devil is in the details.

Right, Indy Rob. Who cares about hundreds if not t...

2013-12-16T22:35:41.405-05:00

Right, Indy Rob. Who cares about hundreds if not thousands of new high-paying jobs if someone is getting a tax break for bringing them. SMH.

I think that dealing with Boeing will turn out so ...

2013-12-16T00:17:39.851-05:00

I think that dealing with Boeing will turn out so much worse than Indianapolis's deal with United.

The Chicago tribune has an article today that mentions a few of Boeing demands. Pence and his administration are all too willing to pimp out the Indiana residents to get Boeing to come to the state.

From the chicago tribune article by Phil Rosenthal.

" But the request for proposal on Boeing's 777X is an incentive package on rocket fuel.

The company wants its land and facility free or at deeply discounted prices. According to reports in The Seattle Times and elsewhere, Boeing also wants the locals to pick up the tab for whatever infrastructure improvements are needed and a subsidy for the costs of hiring and training new employees.

It wants breaks on whatever corporate income tax, franchise tax, property tax, sales/use tax, business license/gross receipts tax and excise taxes it might otherwise face. It wants assurances there won't be any delays for permits or environmental impact reports. Capping its utility prices and not springing any new regulations on the company would be really helpful, too."

Sounds like a really good deal for the Indiana powers to be, not so much for the Indiana residents. Pence has to know that there really is not such a thing as a tax cut , to quote Mr. Rosenthal, "... there's no such thing as a tax cut. It's just a tax shift to everyone else...."

Sure was nice for Mitch to close Cline Ave. in NWI...

2013-12-15T17:27:10.174-05:00

Sure was nice for Mitch to close Cline Ave. in NWI to funnel business to the Toll Road. Having that road reopened would certainly help Indiana's case.

Indiana needs this plant! Lets hope Pence pulls ou...

2013-12-15T13:43:02.206-05:00

Indiana needs this plant! Lets hope Pence pulls out all the big guns including Mitch!!!!

I've always thought that the Chicago-Gary airp...

2013-12-15T09:34:06.135-05:00

I've always thought that the Chicago-Gary airport is a natural third airport for Chicago. The road a rail connections are already there, and I would think (I have some reasons for this) that the Indy-Chicago rail line could be diverted to pass by that airport. While the Jackson family was powerful in Illinois, there was pressure for an airport at Peotone (which is bitterly opposed by the residents there; the proposed Illiana expressway would connect with it). NW Indiana is strong union territory, which in the present environment will count against it. There must be lots of land near the Gary airport which could be developed.