Boeing Holds Largest Bake-Off for Biggest Tax Breaks

Tuesday, December 10th, 2013

Boeing Co. is running the priciest corporate beauty contest in the U.S., as state governments across the country try to outdo a record incentive package from Washington state to lure work that would build one of the aerospace company's coming jetliners.

The prize is expected to include thousands of jobs for workers designing and manufacturing the planned 777X, a 350- to 400-seat jet slated to enter service in 2020. Boeing requested proposals from more than a dozen states, with the bids due by Tuesday, according to officials in several states.

Chicago-based Boeing is seeking to build as much as 4.2 million square feet of new facilities at a cost that could top $10 billion, said a person familiar with the details. The competition is drawing fresh attention to companies' efforts to play localities against each other in the search for tax breaks and other incentives.

Officials from most of the states Boeing invited to participate have publicly expressed interest. Missouri's governor, Democrat Jay Nixon, on Tuesday is to sign a package of incentives approved last week by the state's largely Republican legislature. The measure would be worth $150 million annually to Boeing if the company creates at least 2,000 jobs in Missouri.

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