The southwestern Illinois county that runs a 12-year-old airport that’s never turned a profit will spend $3.5 million to convert a warehouse into what Boeing Co. plans to make a 75-job manufacturing site.
The St. Clair County Board signed off on the expense Monday night. Chicago-based Boeing will repay the investment over its 10-year lease of the building at MidAmerica St. Louis Airport near Mascoutah.
Boeing announced plans to lease the little-used cargo terminal as a place to begin working within months on components for its defense programs.
The state is giving Boeing $2.3 million to help cover the cost of setting up manufacturing at MidAmerica, with more than $2 million of it in tax credits to be parsed out over 10 years.
Someone needs to explain the math used to make sense of this:
Boeing gets over six million to create 75 jobs. Assuming each job pays 50k per year, thatz almost 400k per year.
If the airport never made money, did it break even and have jobs that contributed to the economy of the area? Will those jobs be replaced by Boeing?
Please explain how this benefits the tax payer.