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The BRA brings good things to life, and GE

The Globe reports that GE probably won't actually be buying those two Necco Street buildings from Proctor and Gamble - instead, the BRA will buy them, then let GE occupy them rent-free for 20 years.

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Considering I likely pay more taxes than they do, can I have the same deal?

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The brilliant BRA will think that WTF acronym actually means "Worth The Funding!".

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Or: "Wealthy? Taxes Forgiven"

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Anyone can be a "job creator" if they don't have to pay rent or taxes. I'd hire a personal sushi chef if I received all the welfare that GE gets. One delicious job created!

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Don't blame GE, it's your duly elected state reps that gave them this deal. Let them know how you feel.

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Echo "Hey, this sucks!" > /dev/null

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Sounds like one of Kramer's schemes.

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Now let's push this giant ball of oil out the window.

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I really missed out by not being born a corporation.

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Nothing stopping you from forming one.

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Wormwood: I missed out on getting away with pistol-whipping nuns and throwing orphans off the Tobin Bridge.
Screwtape: Hey, nothing stoppin you from trying!

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Call and make your opinion known:
877-301-8970

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We didn't sign away all the city's first-borns to be GE property too, did we?

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When Walsh promised us a "new era of transparency" in pursuing business growth, I think we misunderstood his accent.

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this mayor was going to get rid of the BRA along with all the Menino layovers.

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Yesterday on the teevee, I saw CEO guy state that each dollar in investment by the state and city will return $1000 . He didn't say where he got that number or who will get it. Also said 4000 jobs , not the widely reported 800 jobs. Sounds like a lot of BS to me.

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She asked about the ongoing GE pollution issues across the state, and got that BS gibberish and more about the value of terrified employees.

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He wants his employees to walk out the front door and be terrified. Not watching deer bounding across the grass.

I think we'll have some great quotes coming out of this guy in the future...

I'm just pissed that no one has mentioned that they're planning on building the new building potentially over the grave of The Channel. Of course that's a bit of local info that the new writers for the Globe would not be privy to, since they've only been in town for the past year.

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was mentioned in another conversation. Only got 5 thumbs up. I guess I'm old. You are correct. No one at the Globe, except maybe Dan Shaugnessy has any idea that The Channel existed. or how many great concerts and good times happened there.

http://www.universalhub.com/2016/world-shaving-headquarters-be-joined-wo...

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“I want to be in the sea of ideas so paranoia reigns supreme."

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That quote is so....disturbingly bizarre. Why should a "sea of ideas" result in paranoia? And why would anyone think that this would be a good state of mind for one's employees? Just how fucking insane is this fruitcake running GE??

"Paranoia reigns supreme" ....I'm expecting to see Jack Kirby-inspired creatures from the depths of the earth appearing below that title. I thought GE brought "good things to life." Maybe it should be "G.E., Where Paranoia Reigns Supreme."

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Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
Step out of line, the men come and take you away

We better stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look - what's going down?

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And in 20 years the BRA will sell the buildings to another corporation for pennies on the dollar. Free buildings for the 1%, cut programs for the people who actually pay taxes.

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Basically structuring some of the deal so that the state incentives can be applied to the "rent" - although if the incentives were for infrastructure - not sure that GE's private building can be considered 'infrastructure" just because a (corrupt) public entity owns it. I guess down the road - after we are all dead and gone and another generation finally figures out how to kill the BRA some of this can be sold off for something more useful.

That's the real thing that sticks in my craw - how the hell does the BRA end up owning a property worth hundreds of millions of dollars in all this?

Glad this is the new, open transparent BRA - when nobody saw this coming until after the Council extended their UR powers by 6 years. Is the timing just all a coincidence? Somehow I doubt it.

If anyone in City Hall is listening - let GE buy and own the buildings. If we promised public money etc. - so be it - but let's use it for public benefit. Not GE's rent.

Trust me. GE can afford to buy or rent those buildings without taking money that could be better spent on REAL infrastructure - not mythical future infrastructure.

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Crony capitalism for the win. This is why the BRA needs to die. Governments should not pick winners and losers.

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The local artists' community down in fort point, FPAC, has been trying to work out a deal with the city for those buildings for artist housing for years! And now the BRA is just giving the, to GE for two decades!? This is infuriating.

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Oh please, artist housing is just as outrageous. Spare us. At least GE will be adding value.

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That must be why they wind up getting priced out of every major city zone where they formed communities and converted desolate landscapes.

Right.

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It's like it's an incestuous organized crime syndicate stealing from taxpayers and Marty is the bag man or something.

If only we had an Attorney General interested in investigating corruption and a Governor with enough stones to not allow Gangster Government cronyism at the expense of everyone outside the lobbyist circle-jerk.

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This is like the sweetheart deal Baker got after leaving state government the first time, for Harvard Pilgrim. Used his statehouse connections to get the state to buy their office building from them and rent it back. Wonder how many other corporations were allowed to bid to rent at the rates he got?
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/10/01/charlie-baker-saved-harva...
The same article talks about how Baker, in Trump like fashion, put Harvard Pilgrim into bankruptcy, yet he came out pretty well. The rich get richer with their insider connections. Immelt, Trump and Baker are made for each other. Harvard bros stick together.

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This is like the sweetheart deal Baker got after leaving state government the first time, for Harvard Pilgrim. Used his statehouse connections to get the state to buy their office building from them and rent it back. Wonder how many other corporations were allowed to bid to rent at the rates he got?

How do you blame Baker for the state reps actions?

I find it amazing how people let the state reps off the hook on this stuff.

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I'm tired of feeling suspicious every time any kind of development deal happens in Boston.

Can someone do a thorough investigation of the last few years of deals, lock away any wrongdoers, shutdown any fundamentally bad organizations, and then we can start with a clean slate?

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You can. Go right ahead and file a FOIA request for all records.

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I'm sure that you just have a few hundred thousand dollars around, right?

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WTF???

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If someone goes to https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petitions to create a petition requesting federal investigation of the doings of the BRA in the case of GE, I would sign it!

Be sure to include the pricing of FOIA as a barrier to citizen oversight.

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For some reason, I cannot read the 32 comments that have been posted on this subject. I noticed some other topics are unavailable too.

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Everybody wailing about this needs to understand that this system, corrupt as it is, still works for g.e. and the politicians here, and for enough of their poor constituents who are happy with little payoffs That's why it lasts!

Sick of reading you guys moan and groan and wave the pitchforks around and do nothing.

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From BernieSanders.com:   

Sanders Singles Out Top-10 Corporate Tax Dodgers

“Three major profitable corporations not only pay nothing in federal income taxes, they actually got a rebate from the IRS,” Sanders told a town meeting in a student center at Iowa Wesleyan University.

Overall, General Electric, Boeing and Verizon paid no federal income taxes during the combined 2008 through 2013 tax years. During that period, those three corporate giants racked up combined profits totaling more than $102 billion. In fact, they received income tax rebates from the Internal Revenue Service totaling more than $4.1 billion, according to a report from Citizens for Tax Justice.

“In America today we are losing $100 billion in revenue every single year because large corporations are stashing their profits in the Cayman Islands and other offshore tax havens,” Sanders said.

Sanders’ tax plan would close loopholes those and other corporations have exploited and use the revenue to create and maintain at least 13 million good-paying jobs by rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, water systems, railways, airports and more.
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If one gets a tax rebate, that means they paid more than they were supposed to in taxes. I received a rebate this year. If GE did as well, that means they overpaid. I fail to see what this has to do w/their profits. If one makes profits, they shouldn't get tax rebates?

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It means that they have managed to rig the system and/or exploit the rigged system to have lots of spurious write-offs, resulting in their paying no taxes.

But, hey, keep up the acrobatic apologetics for corpocracy - I'm sure someone will reward you with a cushy sinecure one day!

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Working Americans have money withheld from every paycheck, in anticipation of their annual income tax bill. When you prepare your tax return, the actual taxes due are calculated. If your taxes are less than the amount withheld during the year, you receive a refund.

A tax rebate is something quite different. It's a special credit that applies only in certain qualified circumstances. For example, if you purchase a new energy efficient appliance, you might qualify for a rebate.

Big corporations like GE pay elected officials to craft tax laws that favor them, such as loopholes that allow profits to be taken out of the country to havens like the Cayman Islands. Locally, GE gets politicians like Mayor Walsh and Governor Baker to approve additional property tax breaks and other rebates that ordinary citizens are not eligible to receive.

Even though they earn billions and billions of dollars in profits, these corporations are able to manipulate the tax system such that they not only pay no income tax, but actually receive payments from the government for rebates or other credits they've been granted.

So, when you hear someone make the bogus claim that Bernie Sanders wants to give people "free stuff", make sure to remind them how much actual free stuff is given to big corporations like GE who can afford to purchase politicians like Governor Baker and Mayor Walsh.

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