Citizen Microsoft

This is a must read for every washingtonian. Here are some excerpts from the article:
...Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer told an audience of Eastern Washington University alumni: "Taxpayers in the state have to come to grips with the notion that we need to invest in higher education." It was a warning shot of sorts from the most influential CEO in the state. Ballmer had to know, however, that Microsoft wouldn't be footing much of the bill if taxpayers increased education funding. Seven years ago, Microsoft opened a small office in Reno, Nev., to collect the money it got from PC manufacturers that installed Windows and Office on the computers they sold. In the years since, Microsoft has sheltered more than $60 billion in royalty revenue in Nevada, a state with no corporate income tax, costing Washington an estimated $327 million in unrealized tax revenue. Ballmer's remark wasn't the only time Microsoft has been hypocritical about taxes and education... Democratic state Rep. Sharon Tomiko-Santos of Seattle, who sits on the House Finance Committee, disagrees. "One hundred million dollars more for schools could go a long way toward improving teacher compensation, reducing class size, or directing some targeted dollars to those struggling schools and students who might be able to use additional resources," she says. "It would seem to me that we could add a significant number of slots on the basic health care plan if we had $100 million. A hundred million biennially is a significant sum of money."

I couldn't agree more. Microsoft needs to re-think whether this soft offshoring is good for the state. What the author is talking about is the loss of revenue to the state that could have been used to improve the roads, schools & healthcare system.

Boing is no exception. It has even threatened the state with moving the production plants somewhere else to get huge tax benefits last year.

This started me into thinking if our state would be better off without them as the author suggests.