The Hiller Instinct: GE Tax Aid

Have you ever seen something and thought, "This can't be true?" and then you find out it is, but you still can't believe it?

Listen to this: General Electric is offering Beacon Hill a deal that, to me, sounds like borderline blackmail. If the state will give GE $25 million in tax credits, then GE will promise not to lay anyone off here for six years.

Give GE credit: Its slogan is “Imagination at Work,” and this is most imaginative.

Because what GE is really saying is "payoff or layoff."

Get it? GE will give its employees the $25 million that would have gone to the state, making the GE workers virtual state employees.

Public money on private pay checks.

If every company followed GE's lead, there'd be no need to envy government jobs, because we'd all have one.

VIEWER VOICES: What do you think about General Electric's request for tax credits to save jobs in Massachusetts?

GE says it needs the money to help pay for updating its plant in Lynn. Why shouldn't GE pay for that?

According to Fortune Magazine, GE is the 13th largest corporation in the world, with profits over $11 billion.

So it's brutal, but brilliant. GE knows the state doesn't want to lose jobs. How much will Beacon Hill pay to keep them?

I hope it's nothing compared to what GE imagines.

I’m Andy Hiller, and that’s my instinct.

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