最新杏吧原创

Construction has already begun. And as that project begins, another is winding down. Ten years ago, Boeing promised Missouri it would keep thousands of jobs in the state, and add hundreds more, in exchange for as much as $229 million in tax breaks.

Now the outcome of that deal is coming into focus: Boeing has lived up to the promises it set a decade ago. It has kept 13,900 jobs in the 最新杏吧原创 area. It has added around 2,000 new positions. And it has received $129 million in tax breaks, according to data compiled by the Post-Dispatch, the newest of which was just released.

Politicians say such deals are worth cutting.

鈥淥ff the top of my head, I can go through a list of corporate headquarters that are gone,鈥� Republican 最新杏吧原创 County Councilman Ernie Trakas said. 鈥淎t the end of the day, if we don鈥檛 work to attract and keep a large corporate presence, we will continue to decline.鈥�

But public officials have recently been more skeptical of development incentives. 最新杏吧原创 Mayor Tishaura O. Jones has scrutinized public subsidies, vowing to reduce handouts in areas of the city already thriving. 最新杏吧原创 County leaders were more publicly reluctant to pass the new tax deal with Boeing last year than council members were a decade ago. Critics point out that Boeing gets to set the rules of such deals.

鈥淏oeing either rigs the game or makes sure that the existing game doesn鈥檛 apply to them,鈥� said Jim Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board and a frequent Boeing critic.

And county residents have packed council meetings to protest the incentives, spurred by Boeing arming Israel in its ongoing war in the Middle East.

鈥淚 grew up in North County and I see the way that the school systems are deteriorating,鈥� said Nida Mutan, a protester, Florissant resident and second-generation Palestinian-American. 鈥淲e could be putting these funds into so many better things. Millions of dollars going to Boeing is ridiculous.鈥�

Boeing plays a huge role in the 最新杏吧原创 region鈥檚 economy. It claims 16,700 workers at its regional facilities in north 最新杏吧原创 County, St. Charles and Mascoutah. It is the second largest employer in 最新杏吧原创 County, after Washington University, and paid $18 million in property taxes in 最新杏吧原创 County alone last year.

Moreover, most of its employees are well-paid 鈥� the average salary for new employees was nearly $107,000 in 2023, according to state tax break records. That鈥檚 the kind of resident who buys a home here, goes out to restaurants, shops in the region鈥檚 malls, supports the schools and is coveted by business and civic leaders coast-to-coast.

Boeing is far from the only company to land . Since 2000, the software company Oracle, the parent company to Kansas City-based Cerner Corp., has collected subsidies worth nearly $1.8 billion, the most in the state, according to an incentive database kept by Good Jobs First. General Motors, which has an assembly plant in Wentzville, has received almost $411 million since 2002. And Ford Motor Co. has received just under $173 million since 2001 for its Kansas City plant.

Boeing points out it has met all the requirements for the tax breaks. The incentives are meant to reward companies for growing jobs, but also for keeping the baseline level of employment in the state.

鈥淎ny incentives Boeing receives from the state are performance-based,鈥� Boeing spokesman Kurt LaBelle wrote in an email to the Post-Dispatch. 鈥淚f we don鈥檛 meet the measures in the agreement, Boeing doesn鈥檛 receive anything.鈥�

A decade-long deal

Boeing鈥檚 current streak of tax incentives started more than a decade ago with a deal that didn鈥檛 end up happening.

On Monday, Dec. 2, 2013, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon called a special session of the Legislature to consider a bill that would lure Boeing to build its 777X jet assembly plant in 最新杏吧原创 County. The state鈥檚 application, pitching incentives on the company鈥檚 , was due in just eight days. Lawmakers passed the bill that Friday with unusual speed and bipartisanship, the Post-Dispatch reported then.

A month later, Boeing announced it would build the plant in Seattle. 最新杏吧原创 would only build some of the wing components. Without the plant, the tax deal was moot.

Just a year later, the state readied another proposal. Policymakers were worried Boeing鈥檚 local employment could shrink as major fighter jet assembly programs wound down.

The new deal, approved in 2014, was called 鈥淢issouri Works.鈥� It had three parts: Up to $146 million for keeping jobs in Missouri, up to $78 million for creating 2,000 new jobs and up to $5 million for job training.

The Post-Dispatch made more than a dozen requests for documents outlining the deal. This is what they show:

The state set tiers for retention benefits. The more jobs the company kept in Missouri, the more money it would get. The company could even lay off workers and still be rewarded, as long as employment numbers didn鈥檛 dip below 12,500.

In its 2015 application, Boeing first said the tax incentives would help it keep 14,500 jobs here 鈥� which would have earned it maximum benefits.

But in later filings, it downgraded to 13,900, meaning it fell in the middle tier, earning a maximum of $103.6 million.

That part of the deal was for 10 years, starting in January 2015, and ending at the end of this year.

Through the end of last year, Boeing had already been awarded $102.5 million, according to state data.

Boeing didn鈥檛 file for the next stage, new jobs benefits, until 2019. The company was allowed to set the baseline at 13,900 existing jobs. The state would count new employment above that baseline, and give the company tax breaks worth 7% of the payroll of the new workers. The goal was 2,000 new jobs, with benefits estimated at $77.9 million.

As of the end of last year, Boeing reported adding 1,880 jobs 鈥� after winning contracts for the T-7A training jet, the MQ-25A refueling drone, and the F-15EX strike fighter 鈥� and the state has awarded the company $26.2 million in breaks.

In each case, Boeing submitted annual public reports, though they contained scant information about new and retained jobs.

But at the same time, the state required Boeing to submit a private spreadsheet of all employees who qualified the company for the benefits, with thousands of entries, including wage and position data. State workers used that data to calculate actual benefits, according to the documents.

The new jobs benefits end in June next year, said Department of Economic Development spokeswoman Amy Berendzen.

And now Missouri and 最新杏吧原创 County have set the stage for another decade-long deal.

A new urgency

On Aug. 8 last year, the county council heard pitches from elected officials, economic development staffers, and leaders in labor, education and transportation.

They wanted the council to approve incentives on a proposed $1.8 billion assembly plant in 最新杏吧原创 County that would come with 500 new jobs. Boeing had its eye on the site of a Berkeley subdivision long cleared of homes under Lambert鈥檚 flight path 鈥� one of the sites Boeing considered a decade ago.

There was again urgency in the new proposal.

State and local officials had been working behind the scenes for more than a year on the deal. The company needed the county鈥檚 help as quickly as possible to secure a federal contract for an undisclosed project, possibly the next generation of American fighter jets. Boeing is still competing against its Maryland-based rival, Lockheed Martin, for that contract.

The council took a final vote on the $155 million incentive package on Tuesday, Sept. 19.

But the tone was different than at the meeting a decade ago. Some felt they had no choice but to approve the incentives.

鈥淚 would love to live in a world where the playing field was level,鈥� said Democratic Councilwoman Lisa Clancy, of Maplewood. 鈥淯nfortunately that鈥檚 not the case. To even have a chance of getting this major expansion, the city, the county and the state have to make some economic concessions.鈥�

The bill passed with only one no vote, from Chesterfield Democrat Kelli Dunaway, who argued incentives hurt working families.

A few weeks later, the state approved an additional $6 million in aid to help Boeing with its expansion.

Boeing has now started preparing the 106-acre site at the east end of 最新杏吧原创 Lambert International Airport. The facility鈥檚 specific purpose is still a secret.

LaBelle, the Boeing spokesman, said the company plans to continue construction regardless of its success landing the federal contract.

鈥淲e need to be prepared to begin work when contracts are awarded,鈥� he said. 鈥淲aiting to build facilities after contract award is too late for our customers.鈥�

Airport officials expect Boeing to begin making lease payments 鈥� $2.63 million a year 鈥� once it begins using the manufacturing complex.