Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook Press WA For $40M For New UW CS Building

theodp (442580) writes "Nice computer industry you got there. Hate to see something bad happen to it." That's the gist of a letter sent by Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Code.org, and other tech giants earlier this week asking the WA State Legislature to approve $40M in capital spending to help fund a new $110M University of Washington computer science building ($70M will be raised privately). "As representatives of companies and businesses that rely on a ready supply of high quality computer science graduates," wrote the letter's 23 signatories, "we believe it is critical for the State to invest in this sector in a way that ensures its vibrancy and growth. Our vision is for Washington to continue to lead the way in technology and computer science, but we must keep pace with the vast demand." The UW Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering profusely thanked tech leaders for pressing for a new building, which UW explained "will accommodate a doubling of our enrollment." Coincidentally, the corporate full-press came not long after the ACM Education Council Diversity Taskforce laid out plans "to get companies to press universities to use more resources to create more seats in CS classes" to address what it called "the desperate gap between the rising demand for CS education and the too-few seats available.

Comments

Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the worst kind of corporate welfare: public costs for private benefits.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[ShanghaiBill]

This is the worst kind of corporate welfare: public costs for private benefits.

Yes, it is pretty silly for them to expect the government to educate people. It is not like an educated population is some kind of public good.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it is pretty silly for them to expect the government to educate people. It is not like an educated population is some kind of public good.

^^^^^^ and this is the worst kind of shill that tries to convince others that stealing others wealth for the "common good" is the right thing to do.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[im_thatoneguy]

Dear Microsoft,

Sorry, but according to your tax filings you are headquartered in Nevada so investing in a Washington University for a Nevada corporation makes no sense.

- Washington

Re:Should come with its own football team

[Chess_the_cat]

And how should the government do that? With the tax income that these companies managed to avoid paying? Cool story bro.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

my question is why are they asking the government to teach people coding when they refuse to hire american coders because they wont hire you because they can't pay you the shitty wages of a fry cook at mcdonalds.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[Livius]

In contrast to what other kind of corporate welfare, exactly?

Re:Should come with its own football team

[shutdown -p now]

The companies may dodge the taxes on their income, but it's pretty hard to dodge taxes on their employees. Granted, WA doesn't have income tax, but there are also property and sales taxes. It would actually be interesting to see just how much the employees of all the companies listed (specifically, their WA offices) generate.

Re: Should come with its own football team

[kenh]

Don't students pay tuition? Shouldn't that help recoup the costs?

For every dollar the companies are asking the state to contribute, the companies are going to match with $1.75

Re:Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

STEM education is the worst! It's racist!

An African-American scholar says that emphasis on STEM education is bad for blacks.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[bill_mcgonigle]

And how should the government do that? With the tax income that these companies managed to avoid paying? Cool story bro.

The government should take money from the poor and funnel it into the coffers of these corporations. Did you miss the part where government is for the privatization of gains and the socialization of losses?

Re: Should come with its own football team

[kenh]

Those corporations are investing $1.75 for every dollar they are asking the state of Washington to invest in the education for jobs in the state of Washington... Do you suggest those companies should invest in the education of Nevada residents instead, or should they just keep their money and let the lack of qualified graduates help them make the case for even more H-1B visas?

Re:Should come with its own football team

[bill_mcgonigle]

It is not like an educated population is some kind of public good.

It's not, if you're speaking about the economic term. A 'public good', to an economist, is something that cannot be provided by the private market (a "market failure") and therefore must fall to a government to provide. Education is one where the private market excels in comparison to the public provision, which would be a counter-example.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

A private market excels at providing exceptional education to individuals with exceptional means. So long as you are content with every future generation having fewer individuals with means, this is a good way to go.

Re: Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

They're in Washington you dumbass. You're so stupid you so like the republican that tape my daughter. I know Microsoft is in Washington because I worked for them for nearly nine years. I quit when my boss wanted me to share my eught year old daughter at a company event. That is so typical of republicans. Their lind constantly rapes children.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[dgatwood]

Yes, it is pretty silly for them to expect the government to educate people. It is not like an educated population is some kind of public good.

Well, it is a benefit to the public as a whole to a large degree, but there is a dark side, too. The main reason that companies want to increase enrollment in CS is to get a larger pool of people to draw from so that they won't have to pay employees as much.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[davester666]

Meanwhile, Microsoft is backdooring a bunch of foreign workers [not from Canada or the US] to work in the US by first getting them to work in Canada for a year then transferring them to the US. Thanks Harper, for letting Microsoft import an UNLIMITED number of people this way.

Re: Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

The University of Washington owns 20% of Seattle real estate. The subject of "tuition" is another (equally as gross) conversation as this one. This whole subject is disgusting. 40 mil investment between these companies is what they pay in petty cash a year for stupid shit like primo salami at fancy in-house marketing meetings.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[plopez]

If they paid more taxes I would pay less

Re: Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you. More at root, the private market specifically excludes a moral compass, therefore cannot point toward the greater good, except by chance. All other exchanges take this into consideration.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[bloodhawk]

how the hell did you get marked insightful, even on here. This is EXACTLY the sort of welfare programs that government should be investing in, investments that lead to jobs for members of the public, investment that leads to higher income and the ability for the state to attract other corporations and investment.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF, they advocate on behalf of the public to better educate the public so they can provide to the public with high paying jobs and you want them to get the fuck out? wow are you truly that uneducated in how the world works? this is one of the best forms of welfare, welfare that directly benefits the public for the long term.

Re: Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

Total bs story from a liberal with compassion.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

my question is why are they asking the government to teach people coding when they refuse to hire american coders because they wont hire you because they can't pay you the shitty wages of a fry cook at mcdonalds.

Yeah, I don't get it... why teach people coding when there's all those cheap H1-Bs and coders in India and elsewhere they can hire?

Besides, by the time they actually graduate we should have artificial intelligence doing programming. Right now we only have that in management. :-P

Re:Should come with its own football team

[someone1234]

Right, the US citizenry shouldn't be educated. Keep watching TV :D

Re: Should come with its own football team

[RobinEggs]

There *is* no lack of qualified graduates. Haven't you been reading the other stories the last five years on slashdot about companies literally attending seminars about how to legally *avoid* American candidates by doing the legal bare minimum to hire an American before hiring an H1-B? An H1-B they were specifically targeting from the very beginning, regardless what American candidate might through sheer luck or connections actually find the job they were trying to hide?

What about the stories in which at least one of the same companies who signed this letter got caught colluding to suppress wages and reduce employee mobility in Silicon Valley, by refusing to hire employees away from other top companies?

Pumping more and more and more money into education is flooding the market, not meeting a need. It's just another step in the quest to manipulate their labor supply until they can get top dollar talent for bargain basement prices.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[ranton]

And how should the government do that? With the tax income that these companies managed to avoid paying? Cool story bro.

Governments shouldn't count on companies for their tax income. Corporate tax systems provide too many opportunities for a race to the bottom. Getting tax revenue from income taxes and property taxes will not be affected by a race to the bottom situation. Making your jurisdiction attractive to citizens by providing good services and attracting good companies is a much better way to ensure good tax revenue.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[CrimsonAvenger]

If they paid more taxes I would pay less

No, if they paid more taxes, the government would increase its spending to match the increased revenues.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[ShanghaiBill]

get a larger pool of people to draw from so that they won't have to pay employees as much.

This is the Lump of Labor Fallacy. There is not a fixed amount of programming to be done. Companies will start or expand based on the labor and skills available. If plenty of programmers drove down prices, then programming salaries would be lowest were programmer were common, such as Silicon Valley, and highest where programmers were rare, such as rural areas and third world countries. This is the exact opposite of reality.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

the government would increase its spending to match the increased revenues.

Damn government! Might end up providing services for the public good. We wouldn't want that.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[sgt_doom]

Plus 1,000!

Re:Should come with its own football team

[sgt_doom]

Plus 10,000!

Re: Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

>There *is* no lack of qualified graduates

They sure as hell aren't showing up in our applicant pool and we pay six figures. We don't hire H1-Bs either (too small to make the paperwork worthwhile).

Re:Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

Might end up providing services for the public good.

Damn right.

I am so glad that our government drops fire on random brown people, so I don't have to. Shit man, I don't even own an assault rifle. I can spend the money I'd normally use on range time to buy and lounge around in a Snuggie(tm).

I tell ya, it's great knowing that they hate us for our freedumbs, but not giving a fuck.

Re:Should come with its own football team

[dgatwood]

You're confusing cause with effect. Programmer wages aren't high in the Silicon Valley because of having a lot of programmers. There are a lot of programmers because the wages are so high that CS majors come here in droves after college.

The reason the wages are so high here is because of basic supply and demand at work. Silicon Valley has only about a 3.6% unemployment rate among programmers, and a lot of the unemployed either want to be unemployed or are unemployed because their specific skills aren't in high demand. Programmers may be common in the Silicon Valley, but the demand in the Silicon Valley far exceeds the number of qualified programmers who are available and looking for jobs. Thus, the entire market is a zero-sum game, and the high wages are a result of the need to buy people away from other companies.

As a result, any sudden increase in the number of programmers drives down salaries for new hires, and fairly dramatically at that. For proof, you need only look at what happened to programmer salaries outside the Bay Area during the dot-com crash, when droves of people suddenly were looking for more affordable places to live. In some areas, salaries for programmers dropped almost in half because of that exodus.

Is it realistic to believe that there will ever be enough programmers to satisfy the Silicon Valley's voracious appetite? Hard to say. But that's a separate question.

Re: Should come with its own football team

[Anonymous Coward]

I dunno, no job for me for the past year or so, and I don't blame the H1-Bs or the like so much as age discrimination.

I think that when Obama leaves office, the economy will recover from the threat of communism and jobs will come flooding back, since skills will become more important than age at that point, when the rubber really meets the road. Unless Hillary gets elected. Probably not a popular viewpoint here on such a youth oriented site, but what the hell, it's been my experience.

Can we guess why?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm going to bet its so we can get cheaper labor but wtf do I know other than my superiors keep lowering by hiring budgets.

I appreciate the sentiment..

[Rinikusu]

But dang, MS, you could write a check and it'd be a fucking rounding error on your earnings last year...

Re:I appreciate the sentiment..

[Shadow of Eternity]

MS could give a full free ride including rent, food, and gas to a good number of students every single year and it would be the rounding error on their earnings.

Re:I appreciate the sentiment..

[tompaulco]

MS could give a full free ride including rent, food, and gas to a good number of students every single year and it would be the rounding error on their earnings.

And if they tied that education to a job at Microsoft, they would come out ahead, even if they paid industry standard wages.

Re:I appreciate the sentiment..

[aardvarkjoe]

But dang, MS, you could write a check and it'd be a fucking rounding error on your earnings last year...

Same goes for the government...

Re:I appreciate the sentiment..

[93 Escort Wagon]

But dang, MS, you could write a check and it'd be a fucking rounding error on your earnings last year...

UW's current CS building is the Paul Allen Center - guess where they got the money for it?

Incidentally, the Paul Allen Center has NO CLASSROOMS. This proposed new building likely won't have them either. When they speak of "accommodate a doubling of our enrollment", what they really mean is it will give them enough office and lab space so they can double the size of their faculty - the classes will still have to be held elsewhere on campus, and the supporting funding will also have to come from somewhere else.

Re:I appreciate the sentiment..

[93 Escort Wagon]

And if you don't believe me, here is this quarter's CSE time schedule. Classes are held all over campus because they didn't put any classrooms into the Paul Allen Center.

So that photo at the top of the GeekWire story - the one with the packed CS class? I'm fairly sure that's in Kane Hall! The new building will do nothing to ameliorate that.

Re:I appreciate the sentiment..

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called being human instead of being the rational economic actors you read about in textbooks. It's the same mindset that college kids have when they spend absurd proportions of their free time scouring the dark corners of the Internet so they download hundreds of books, movies, and music files off illegal torrents, most of which they'll probably never read/watch/listen to.

Yes, they could well afford to pay for, maybe not all of that, but more than enough to give themselves overstuffed pipelines in many different categories.

But there's some hormone or something in their brain that says, No. I should have this for free, all my peers are doing it, and together, we can keep coming up with good sounding arguments why it's our right to get it for free. If I caved in now, that would set a bad precedent that I can take advantage of, by greedy bastards who didn't plan ahead.

That's likely what the Silicon Valley bosses are thinking right now. So who's right?

Re: I appreciate the sentiment..

[Anonymous Coward]

Lol at industry standard wages. I make $12 per hour because they know I must keep my health insurance since I have two type II diabetic daughters. The Republicans that rule that corporation hate families like the rest of their kind.

Re: I appreciate the sentiment..

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, type II. What is your-Republixan hating self feeding them?

Re: I appreciate the sentiment..

[Anonymous Coward]

Paul Allen is one of those tepublican cockauckers that hates us and wants us to die. That is the way of his kind. He wants us to die so in his mind there is no point In educating us subhumans.

Re:I appreciate the sentiment..

[Dutch Gun]

Based on my own experience, CS classrooms don't really need to be high tech. You can hold them anywhere, as long as you have a laptop computer with a projector attachment. The labs are where things always got crowded, and that may be what's currently limiting CS enrollment.

This would mean that the total number of enrolled students wouldn't increase, but the specific number of CS students from the population of the campus could increase as a percentage of all majors. This makes some sense, because to increase the total student population, you can't just add a CS building. You'd also need to add dorms, dining facilities, etc. So, even if the goal is to increase the number of CS students, they might not actually need any new classrooms if the total student population is staying relatively stable.

You could very well be right, of course, but I'm not sure you should necessarily assume the worst. I'm just tossing out a possible hypothesis.

Re: I appreciate the sentiment..

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe your skill set is only worth $12/hour along with your attitude.

Re:I appreciate the sentiment..

[TapeCutter]

The labs actually pull in money for most universities, when students are not using them they are rented out for private training. I remember the head of CS department bitterly complaining about being forced to share the bounty with other departments.

As for TFA the companies are offering $1.75 for every dollar they state puts in, that's not a shakedown, that's philanthropy. That education in the US has to rely on philanthropy is the real shakedown.

Re:I appreciate the sentiment..

[Anonymous Coward]

But then also, the current building is in really amazing shape, and I remember it well. Going to go RTFA now, but at the moment, I don't know why the need a new one.

Now the UW math/english/whatever building that is crowded and a friggin' maze? They could definitely use a new one for all those departments.

Re: I appreciate the sentiment..

[Anonymous Coward]

Padelford on the east side of the seattle campus.

Re:I appreciate the sentiment..

[houghi]

A 40M raise would just raise the cost with 40M. They should not pay the students, because that would be an incentive to raise prices even further, because they will be able to charge more.

Re: I appreciate the sentiment..

[Anonymous Coward]

Therefore who cares?

Re: I appreciate the sentiment..

[tompaulco]

Oh, you must not live in the United States where the insurance must cover people with pre-existing conditions. I have not had insurance through my company for years. Well, I did, but not my family. They paid for my coverage. However, it was much cheaper to insure my family on the open market rather than through the employer plan. People seem to have got it in their head that they have to be tied to a company in order to receive health insurance. This has never been the case. Outside coverage has always been available, and it is often cheaper other than whatever part the company covers. These days a lot of companies "offer" an "excellent benefit plan", but when you look at it, you pay 100% of the premium. How is that an "Offer"? You could get the same outside, probably for less money, and not be tied to a particular employer.

Re:I appreciate the sentiment..

[93 Escort Wagon]

For the record, I have nothing against CSE wanting to grow and wanting to become a stand-alone School. They are a great department and do a lot of interesting work. But I intensely dislike when the "haves" misrepresent facts or plead poverty in an attempt to acquire ever-more-scarce public funding.

Re:I appreciate the sentiment..

[Shadow of Eternity]

See the problem with that logic is it's not logical at all. You can use that to say "no" to ANYTHING good, it's just an excuse to screw people. The solution is you don't let them price gouge.

back in the day...

[david_bonn]

Back when I was an undergrad in that program they limited themselves to 100 undergrads. EE was a separate program.

And the CS department was in a very dumpy building right across from the Student Union building that was a notorious firetrap.` That was a couple of buildings ago. If I remember they remodeled their current building (the old EE building) in 2003.

Re:back in the day...

[ZipK]

And the CS department was in a very dumpy building right across from the Student Union building that was a notorious firetrap.` That was a couple of buildings ago. If I remember they remodeled their current building (the old EE building) in 2003.

The department has already outgrown the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering, which was dedicated in 2003. The department's previous home was the decrepit (but homey) Sieg Hall.

Call me cynical

[Anonymous Coward]

Translation:

"As representatives of companies and businesses that rely on recent graduates that are ignorant of their own value, we believe it is critical for the State to invest in our bottom line in a way that ensures continued profit delivered to our shareholders. Our vision is for Washington to continue to lead the way in producing an abundance of CS graduates, so that the few that actually negotiate their salary can't get what they want because the market is flooded."

Outsource?

[Anonymous Coward]

They should build colleges in india , china and such . They are going to outsource as soon as anything makes business sense anyways .

Slashdot sucks

[Anonymous Coward]

The new classic view is ugly as shit.

Does it matter?

[DoofusOfDeath]

I mean, holy crap, what facilities do you need to teach CS? A climate-controlled room with whiteboards, markers, chairs, some electrical outlets, and wifi. Bonus points for a projector.

Most CS happens in your own head, on your laptop, or by talking with other people. You don't need to be on the Starship Enterprise.

Re:Does it matter?

[invictusvoyd]

I'd say instead of facilities a CS course requires really good faculty . That is certainly a plus point .

Re:Does it matter?

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly.

I would rather see universities have a "red shirt" freshman year for academics, then you pick your major and most of the classes are taught around that subject.

Discrete Math for Computer Scientists, Technical Writing for Computer Scientists, Women Studies for Computer Scientists, Economics for Computer Scientists, Business for Computer Scientists...

Now, some classes should be with all the other students to have them feel like they belong as part of a bigger university. However, what they teach and the most effective way to teach is more important then a huge building.

I would even like to see more colleges help with the transition from student to employee. Where companies will hire you after a semester or two of specific training in the senior year (or 5th year). That is an interesting thought. Would you be OK with a company picking the classes you need to take for a semester, if they paid for it?

Re:Does it matter?

[bill_mcgonigle]

I will preface this by saying "this is really true" because you probably would otherwise read it as a nonsense, sarcastic, or glib comment.

I heard a conversation the other day about some of the terrible new buildings at the nearby university. A very senior administrator said (paraphrased), "you need to hire a hot architect and pay him 20% of the project price to come up with some really shocking architecture, to prove to prospective students that the school is still relevant."

I think he was talking mostly about the atrocity that they added to the Medical School, which looks suspiciously like the post-accident Chernobyl reactor. The "architecture" part of the project probably added $20M over making it look like a classical higher-ed building. I believe this administrator had final sign-off on such an expense.

Re:Does it matter?

[invictusvoyd]

It has to somehow come down to a global university .. using the media technology we have today ..
who would have thought that we'd have a useable global encyclopedia 20 years ago?

Re:Does it matter?

[Anonymous Coward]

If someone can't learn CS in their mom's basement, maybe they should choose another major.

And don'tforget the tax dodging

[Required Snark]

Remember all these companies pay shockingly small amounts of taxes, both at the state and federal level.

I have a counter suggestion: make the bastards pay reasonable taxes, and then the state will be able to afford to put up a nice shiny new building. Instead of having to say, beg $70 million in the first place.

Re:And don'tforget the tax dodging

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod parent up. These companies are depriving the government of taxes and THEN come begging hat in hand asking the government to fund their enterprises. Not surprised to see Google on the list either. They threw that whole "Don't be evil" thing right out the door once it started interfering with shareholder value. They could easily fund the building AND pay the tuition of a portion of the students and not even blink.

Re: And don'tforget the tax dodging

[kenh]

These companies follow the tax code as written/enforced. If you don't like the revenues the current tax code generates, rewrite the tax code - but don't be surprised if they seek out a new location with lower taxes.

Re: And don'tforget the tax dodging

[Rinikusu]

blah blah blah shut the fuck up.

Re: And don'tforget the tax dodging

[Anonymous Coward]

how noble of them to follow the laws they buy

Re: And don'tforget the tax dodging

[arthurh3535]

These companies follow the tax code as written/enforced. If you don't like the revenues the current tax code generates, rewrite the tax code - but don't be surprised if they seek out a new location with lower taxes.

That's when you make sure you add a rule that even if you leave (ie. headquarter in another country) that you still have to pay an equal tax here or that foreign country.

I believe this is the current thought and idea to implement.

Re: And don'tforget the tax dodging

[Anonymous Coward]

Quite insightful suggestion, right up there with "if you don't like [any given thing], move to another planet". No. More useful is doing precisely what the OP said, publicizing one's discontent with an overtly unethical initiative within an overtly unethical system. Perhaps, the post will make somebody pursuing it think twice about their moral hazard. Perhaps, it will convince and/or motivate a few people to vote for people who will change it, as their only realistic (if remote) recourse. Perhaps, his post is a few thousand times more useful than your intentionally-unimplementable "recommendation" to "rewrite the tax code".

Apple has $178,000M.

[BlueKitties]

Apple literally has $178,000M in cash on hand, and the state had better ensure that $40M go to educating their future workforce.

Seriously. The good press Apple would have received to fund that project would be mind numbing, and probably pay for itself in terms of the PR and 'free' advertising that would result.

Re:Apple has $178,000M.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bingo. What the blue blazes happened to the Apple that actively supported educational institutions by both giving computers and giving real student discounts? Not the 10% stuff, but significant stuff.

Apple used to have a stranglehold in education, but they are really screwing themselves by ignoring this market.

Re:Apple has $178,000M.

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't see Apple's name in the summary or article. What the blue fuck are you on about?

Re: Apple has $178,000M.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple hates us and wants us to die. That is what he is talking about. The republicans that rule that Corporation hate us. They hate us.

What about other states?

[Anonymous Coward]

It'd be nice if they'd go to bat in other states, as well.

Damn government to Hell!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's getting in the way of the free market entrepreneurs again!

I bet I could set up a CS program for half that.

Why? All they want is foreign H1-Bs anyway.

[Anonymous Coward]

Every single state should tell them all of F*ck off until they stop pushing for cheap foreign programmers. Why even have CS/Eng programs domestically when all they want to do is drive the wages for those grads down with more foreign workers? I'm sick of these companies talking out of both sides of their mouths.

Restart some real mentoring/apprenticeship programs within your companies too, while you're at it, so universities can stop trying to be technical schools where students only learn the language-de-jour so their grads can 'hit the ground running' (ie., companies don't need to do any work training them in domain-specific frameworks).

Bitter? Nah.

Sure, just as soon as...

[kenh]

You drop your H-1B visa requests.

Re:Sure, just as soon as...

[Anonymous Coward]

If the government says "no", it's exactly the justification they need more more H1B.

"We tried to get more local employees, but the education just isn't there"

why not apprenticeships?

[rogoshen1]

Would it perhaps be better to take sharp kids straight out of HS who have the interest and the aptitude, and give them 2-3 year internships where they learn 'on the job'?

(I'm a web guy, so I'm not sure if that style of training would carry over to things like embedded systems.)

Same Crew Anteed Up Money to Defeat WA Income Tax

[theodp]

Public Disclosure Commission records show that five of those who signed the letter calling for increased WA State spending - Microsoft General Counsel and Code.org Director Brad Smith, Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi, Madrona VC and Amazon.com Director Tom Alberg, Ignition Partners VC Brad Silverberg, Trilogy VC John Stanton - contributed money in 2010 to defeat I-1098, an initiative for a WA state income tax. Other contributors to Defeat 1098 included Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Amazon exec and Code.org Director Jeff Wilke, Microsoft Corporation, and other Microsoft execs, including then-CEO Steve Ballmer. After I-1098 went down in flames, Ballmer announced plans to sell $2B of Microsoft stock that might have been subject to as much as $180 million in state taxes under the quashed proposal.

Fair exchange is no robbery

[SimonInOz]

You know, if these companies were good corporate citizens, and paid their fair share of taxes, then I'd certainly feel they have a right to comment on the disposition of said taxes.

But they don't do they?

Wait...

[techneeks]

Aren't these the same companies that pushed so hard for h1-b visa expansion?

what about grad students

[Anonymous Coward]

who gives a shit about doubling undergrad enrollment when there aren't enough seats for all the people who want masters or phds to begin with

Re:what about grad students

[Anonymous Coward]

Grad student enrollment is kept low to preserve quality. If you just want a rubber stamp MS to get a raise, there are plenty of lower-quality institutions that will get you in and out in two years.

Why don't they just pay themselves?

[Anonymous Coward]

It seems to be a rather constant thing that corporations don't train anymore. They simply fob much of their expenses back to the public. With the current financial problems associated with higher education at the moment coupled with it's low quality due to lack of online acumen from professors why don't these multi billionaires simply flip out some pocket change to solve the problem?

They don't seem to be very eager for new talent, or to care that much, they hire H1-B workers and displace locals. They don't do internally training generally, and they have a high tendency to create products not for the betterment of mankind but more for their shareholders.

I hope congress doesn't listen to them, and more or less tells them to go fuck themselves which is really the answer they should be receiving. Our existence is not defined by them. It's not up to our government or public to create the corporate citizens they desire, it is to them and their massive war chests to invest in their own and potentially future employees.

Our education system is meant to facilitate and further our personal skills and interests, often in pursuit of a job but also because it's just what we're passionate about. It is not a corporate training facility.

How pathetic

[VonSkippy]

$40M divided amongst those four companies (Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Google) is a drop in the bucket. If it's so important to them, let them pony up the money.

Why do they want government handouts?

[Anonymous Coward]

The CS facilities will help THEM get jobseekers that have competitive knowledge, increasing THEIR profitability.

So they should damn well pay for it themselves, not nick taxpayer money to help themselves.

If they want $40M from a government starved of cash, they ought to have damn well paid their taxes, then the state could have made the facilities without needing threats from the industry.

Not according to Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do they themselves claim to be in Nevada? So they don't have to pay Washington taxes. Washington taxes they're trying to get spent for their benefit. A cost to the state that you and your daughter will pay because you can't decide that despite having your home in Washington, you have decided to domicile at some tax haven elsewhere.

Unlike a corporation.

Obey the letter of the law

[Anonymous Coward]

As long as you can find an interpretation that disobeys the spirit.

But forget that, what legal mandate requires the Washington State to pay $40M for a new CS lab and obey the threats of corporations not even registered in the state?

None?

Well, then, if we're going to accept "they obey the law as far as they must", then there's no reason to obey the threats of MS et al, is there?

Memo to WA State Government

[Jawnn]

Please give free money to help us compete in the glorious free market.

Regards,

The tech industries of Washinton State

P.S. - Remember, it's not socialism when you give welfare to corporations.

Re:Same Crew Anteed Up Money to Defeat WA Income T

[Anonymous Coward]

I heard those poor corporations could hardly afford the cost of bigger golden parachutes if they had to pay fair market value for American graduates.

Won't somebody think of the golden parachutes!

And how would they pay for newer yachts if they had to pay a state income tax?

Won't somebody think of the boats!

Re:Same Crew Anteed Up Money to Defeat WA Income T

[sgt_doom]

Plus 1,000,000!