Alcoa pleads for tax break extension for the two smelters in Washington

Alcoa seeks tax break extensions for the last two Alcoa plants remaining in Washington, one in Ferndale and Wenatchee, which employ a total number of 1,100 people. The number of aluminium smelters and the number of people employed in them have dropped drastically since 1980 when there were 10 smelters at one point employing roughly 10,000 people.

Members of the Alcoa plants including managers and workers along with representatives from the Chambers of Commerce of Ferndale and Wenatchee regions approached the House Technology & Economic Development Committee on Tuesday to plead the tax break extension bill.

The Bill is fairly standard with a few inclusions. Since the Legislature has become stricter about putting job-related targets, a provision has been added which states that the company has to refund the tax break money for that year as well as for the previous two years to the state in case the company closes a facility or cuts jobs.

The Legislature has added this clause after Boing started shipping huge numbers of engineering jobs out of the state despite receiving lump-sum tax breaks from the state.

Boeing has always asked for task breaks citing that transporting workforce out of the state would cause economic ripples in the state. Alcoa says the same thing will happen to them in a smaller state. All members pleading for the bill testify that Alcoa has had close ties with the two communities that date back to several decades.