Former school headquarters in downtown Boston would become GE innovation center

We don't need to give companies or individuals millions of dollars to move here. People are doing it willingly. The seaport is one of the hottest areas in the country, so giving GE rent there for free instead of charging another company for it is just dumb. Boston is only behind SF/San Jose IN THE WORLD for venture capital funding. We don't need GE or anyone else. Want to move to Boston and take advantage of our excellent resources and well educated populace? Great. Pay your fucking taxes like everyone else.

You didn't read, you just wanted to jab me. So let me repeat it for you...

First off, any job that GE is 'bringing here' that isn't already on the payroll is going to be facilities, secretarial, administrative, and IT staff. Very few of these positions will pay more than 50k.

I'll rephrase it so you can understand this more... very few of these NEW positions will pay more than 50k.

I'm talking about "jobs created" Sorry MOVING a position here isn't job creation. It's moving people that already have jobs. Jobs created would mean NEW positions for UNEMPLOYED people (or people working elsewhere and not at GE currently). See the difference?

And you have no idea what these jobs pay.

I have a pretty good guess what market rate is for IT, Administrative, Facilities and Secretarial position pays and most, if not all, are being paid less than 50k.

Are you taking into account job losses in Norwood and Lynn? Would those job losses NOT happen if GE stayed in CT? Regardless of whether the downtown HQ jobs are newly created, or people moving from CT to MA, they're bringing 800 new taxpayers to the state of Massachusetts.

Why shouldn't I? GE is GE is GE. Whether it's in the Seaport, Lynn, Westwood, Pittsfield, or any other town across the state that GE has some presence in. It's the same company, same big conglomerate. Same payroll. So total number of jobs across the state within the GE umbrella is a net negative. Regardless, if half the jobs are imports from CT, that's still only 400 "new" jobs. Not exactly alot to balk about.

Don't try to say you're 'creating jobs' when you are cutting staff at other offices and putting people out of work. That is not job creation.

they're bringing 800 new taxpayers to the state of Massachusetts.

Keep telling yourself that, maybe you'll believe it. "New" is relative. See comment above, half of those jobs are from residents who already live in the state and are paying taxes. This is not "new" tax payers. And honestly, as slimey as GE is, do you think some of these execs are going to pay their mass taxes.. doubt it.

We'll see. It's a theory. It worked out that way for the mutual fund industry. Money managers are still in Boston, but much of the servicing part of the business has been moved to cheaper labor locales.

GE is a notorious tax evader. They have no interest in paying local, state or Federal tax if they can avoid it. I'd settle for getting them to pay 100% of their local property tax and get the $25,000,000 tax abatement back.

What's most apparent to me is the ease with which Baker and Walsh shower GE with $250,000,000 in "incentives" while depriving 54,000 Boston students of $32,000,00 that would close the budget gap without cuts.

GE is a crap shoot. Funding education so out kids can have opportunity in their future, that's fundamental.

It's entirely a lost opportunity cost. Your assumption that we didn't "give" anything to GE is based on the assumption that nothing else would go into that spot without a tax break. Maybe that would be the case in a down economy, but sorry, open your eyes and take a look around you; vacancy rates are extremely low, huge numbers of new residents are moving town, we've only trailing Silicon Valley in VC$, and suddenly we absolutely need GE? We not only gave them a lower tax bill, but we gave up our opportunity to have their properties generate taxes.

And we "gave" GE and its political allies the ability to claim that losing 600 jobs in CT and bringing 600 jobs to Boston isn't some sort of paper shuffling exercise, but somehow a major jobs creation. Which is just some AMAZING math. 600 - 600 = PROFIT!!!

not united not independent political movement by pointing that out.

The city/state "gave" them $150,000,000 worth of tax relief and rent payments. Specifically, GE will move its headquarters to a building that otherwise would have generated $150,000,000 if it had been rented out to a company that didn't have a sweetheart deal. This is the sort of thing you do when you're Detroit, and you want to attract business to an area that is hemorrhaging jobs and money, because you're willing to take the short-term pain to build a long-term future for your city. It is NOT the sort of thing you do when your city's problems can be generally summarized as "we can't build fast enough to accommodate all the people and businesses who want to move here." Or, at least, it's not the sort of thing you do if you're trying to provide the best outcomes for your citizens--it's EXACTLY the sort of thing you do if you want to make sure that GE writes your political campaign a nice, fat check when the next election cycle rolls around, and you don't need to worry about the deal blowing up because you can convince get a significant percentage of the public to shill for you under the guise of "job creation."