[Corp. Watch] Stimulus as corporate welfare: 'Where do you want to subsidize billionaires today?'

[Corporation Watch]

Critics Slam Microsoft Bridge as Waste of Stimulus Money

  By Patrick Oppmann

(CNN, April 1) -- Should a bridge that would connect two campuses at  
Microsoft headquarters be funded with $11 million from the federal  
stimulus package?

	Critics of using stimulus money for the bridge say it would give the  
software giant a break on a pet project. They also say it serves as a  
warning sign of how some stimulus money is not being used to finance  
new projects, but is being diverted to public works already under way.

	Supporters argue the bridge is an ideal public-private partnership  
that will benefit an entire community, while fulfilling the stimulus  
package's goal of getting people back to work.

	"It's going create just under 400 jobs for 18 months constructing the  
bridge," says Redmond (Washington) Mayor John Marchione. "It's also  
connecting our technical sector with our retail and commercial sectors  
so people can cross the freeway to shop and help traffic flow."

	Marchione applied for federal stimulus money after cost of the  
project jumped from $25 million to $36 million. Marchione says the  
increase was due to a rise in construction prices -- and because the  
bridge will be built on a diagonal, in order to connect Microsoft's  
original East campus with a newer West campus, which are split by a  
public highway.

	Microsoft is hardly getting the bridge for free. The company is  
contributing $17.5 million, or a little less than half the tab of the  
$36 million bridge, which would be open for public use.

	And even though the bridge goes from a parking lot behind Microsoft's  
West campus across a highway to an entrance of Microsoft's East  
campus, Marchione says people other than Microsoft employees would use  
the overpass.

	"We're not a one-company town," Marchione says. "Our traffic studies  
show that Microsoft traffic would be about 42 percent of the bridge,  
yet Microsoft is paying for about 50 percent of the bridge, so we  
think we are getting fair value. The United States taxpayer is  
leveraging their dollars, and I think everyone is getting a fair deal."

	But a watchdog group monitoring how stimulus money is being spent  
says that, in this case, the taxpayer is getting ripped off.

	"This is $11 million where we are substituting public money for  
private money, and that means there's some other project that's not  
being built that would have a greater benefit than a bridge to  
Microsoft," says Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common  
Sense.

	But without the stimulus money, Marchione counters, the bridge may  
not have been built. Microsoft had "capped out" its contribution to  
the project, he explains. And the economic tough times have affected  
even the biggest companies. "Microsoft laid off 5,000 people in  
January," Marchione points out.

	Ellis doesn't buy it.

	"Let's face it. Microsoft is one of the most lucrative companies in  
the country," Ellis says. "They could have easily funded this out of  
pocket change. ... Uncle Sam has a big wallet that's there for the  
taking, [the city of] Redmond wanted to take it -- and Microsoft was  
happy to let them pick up that part of the tab."

	Microsoft did not respond to requests for an interview on the bridge  
project.

	"As the largest employer in Redmond, Microsoft takes its  
responsibility to the surrounding community seriously," Microsoft  
general counsel Brad Smith wrote in a posting online. "We have spent  
over $50 million to assist Redmond and other local governments with  
street construction, transit facilities, water and sewer facilities,  
and fire equipment."

	Last week, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire certified 138 projects,  
including the bridge, to receive stimulus funding. Construction is  
expected to begin in June.

	Michael Ennis of the Washington Policy Center, a Seattle-based not- 
for-profit group that advises policy makers, said there are many  
reasons the bridge project is a good one.

	"Any time you can include the private sector in funding  
transportation projects, it's a win-win situation," Ennis explains.  
"The state has a monopoly on our roads system. Even if Microsoft  
wanted to pay for this project on their own, legally they are required  
to work with the public sector."

	But Ennis also says the bridge does not fit with the kind of projects  
the stimulus plan is meant to bankroll. "This project would have moved  
forward regardless of having the federal money or not, so it doesn't  
have any additional benefit to the economy," he says.

	As he pedaled on his bicycle to work, one Microsoft employee saw the  
issue in much simpler terms. "It's going to cut about two miles off my  
ride each day," he said.