02.24.10
Microsoft the Tax Evader Wants Taxpayers to Spend Billions Building It a Bridge, Hires PR/Lobbyists
Summary: Microsoft insists on spending billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money (Microsoft hardly pays any tax) building a bridge that helps Microsoft; these efforts from Microsoft go a long way
MICROSOFT IS avoiding tax using corrupt officials who used to work for Microsoft (there is Mr. Hunter for example). At the same time, Microsoft insists that taxpayers should build bridges for Microsoft at their own expense. Who would permit such outrageous behaviour to carry on? Probably those who are simply not informed. There are many who fall under this category (some people near Microsoft have lost their houses and now live in tents, so newspapers are not a priority to them).
To make matters worse, Microsoft officials are now lobbying for the spending of $4,650,000,000 on a new bridge. Microsoft is going beyond lobbying and has just launched some kind of an advertising/PR campaign. Needless to say, Microsoft won’t contribute to this bridge financially; after all, Microsoft is a tax dodger [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] and imminent bankruptcy of Washington is of no concern to Microsoft executives who can always just travel.
There is obviously opposition to the spending of almost $5 billion in a debt-saddled state:
The cost to replace the 520 bridge is $4.65 billion. One group, including Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, opposes the current bridge replacement plan. They want light rail on the new bridge, which is not part of the plan.
“Let’s take another, closer look at this bridge. Let’s take another look at what we’re planning, and let’s get it right, not just for ourselves but for our children,” said McGinn.
He has to fight against the lobbying machine of Microsoft.
Now watch what Microsoft is doing:
Although Microsoft has made its position clear on local and regional issues in the past, it’s uncommon for the company to launch a campaign in support of its views. Microsoft is holding a news conference on the topic later this morning in Redmond, and we’re planning to attend, assuming we can get across the bridge in time.
Microsoft says “spend, spend, spend,” but it’s not actually among those who pay for it.
Microsoft is often perceived as a source of jobs and prosperity in this area, but considering the Abramoff visas, the benefits to foreign workers and their families, and also the massive tax evasion, how deluded need people be? Microsoft is a leech but PR staff continues to deceive a lot of people. █
“In the fall of 1982, Pam Edstrom [of Waggener Edstrom], a diminutive woman with piercing blue eyes, was recruited by Microsoft. [...] In modern-day business, flacks were responsible not only for avoiding bad press, but for spinning the good. [...] Hanson and Edstrom would spin a whole new image for Gates himself. They would tap the best and worst of Chairman Bill, changing his clothes, his voice, and his allegiances, driving him to become not just the boss, but, essentially, the company mascot—a sort of high-technology Colonel Sanders.”
–Pam’s daughter
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satipera said,
February 24, 2010 at 3:49 pm
There is a very serious issue here and it is that wealthy people and companies are avoiding paying their fair share of tax if any whilst average citizens are paying proportionately much higher rates. I can’t see that the bridge and Microsoft’s part in it is anything other than a distraction to the tax issue and Microsoft’s other well documented robber baron tendencies. This is not a bridge for Microsoft but a major piece of regional infrastructure investment that will remedy looming problems. This video shows what is being proposed on one of the options. A light rail scheme is proposed on another. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvMhyY3cRE4&feature=player_embedded
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 6:39 am
The bridge is not just for Microsoft (nowhere did I suggest exclusivity) but Microsoft is lobbying here because it’s beneficial to its employees and bottom line.
your_friend Reply:
February 27th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
It would be better for the state to invest in light rail going to useful places, like the airport. Even Microsoft’s own PR page, which I won’t link to because the publisher is untrustworthy, is filled with posts pointing out the folly of this bridge. A state that’s about to go bankrupt should be looking for the best bang for the buck and taxpayers should be demanding that Microsoft pay evaded back taxes.
Microsoft is trying to create the impression that they are a net contributor to the state. They want to make the scale of their tax dodge look small by demanding another huge outlay but it just goes to show that the state is giving more than it gets. The infrastructure built and maintained by the state for Microsoft is expensive but the majority of the wealth is sucked up by it’s ultra rich owners who dodge personal taxes the same way the company dodges sales taxes. It may be that the state has paid out the nose for decades and now sits helpless as the company collapses with it’s fraudulent business model [2, 3]
satipera said,
February 25, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Roy you said
“At the same time, Microsoft insists that taxpayers should build bridges for Microsoft at their own expense.”
I think you do more than a good job and do not want to be arguing with you about an over egged pudding that should have been binned and definitely not defended as edible.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
That doesn’t mean Microsoft only. I’m sure Boeing might enjoy it too.
your_friend said,
February 27, 2010 at 2:27 pm
Another local news source that should be embarrassed to miss this issue is the Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI). As ordinary people face huge tax increases and cutes in services, NPI misses the obvious call to tax the wealthy and punish Microsoft for tax evasion. Instead, they link to Microsoft’s blog on the 520 road replacement, which fails to mention the $5 billion cost. NPI has also done a poor job of covering the massive H1B issue, which continues to mitigate any advantage of having Microsoft in state, and has been called to account in comments. I know a EE who tells me that there were no US citizens left in the area by the time he moved out of his Redmond apartment. Even the gardener was a “guest worker” and had been for a decade. Shame on NPI and good on the author of this cartoon.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
February 27th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
The deception about “what’s good for [GM/MS] is good for America” is just one.
Another one is that there is a “lack of American engineers”. It’s only true if they complete the sentence: “lack of American engineers who are cheap to employ.”
your_friend Reply:
February 27th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
H1B goes well beyond cheap and into indentured servitude and is a real threat to US society. “Guest workers” are deported at their own expense if they are fired and not rehired in some impractically short time like two weeks. They have almost no recourse to wrongful termination, so they are virtually enslaved. The program is used to reduce the wages and rights of US citizens to those just barely better than what people can earn in developing nations. The wealthy people who own and run companies like Microsoft pocket the difference and make themselves even wealthier and more able to remove other legal safeguards against employee exploitation. If the rights erosion trend persists, the US will eventually look like Mexico and other developing nations where a small elite class lords over a vast, desperate population.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
February 27th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
“Will eventually”? It’s already happening.