On 520, Microsoft Puts Its Mouth Where Its Money Should Be

(via TechFlash) "Let's Move!" is the headline for the full-page Microsoft ad in today's Seattle Times (also here). They don't mean to Reno, Nevada, where as a tax-dodge they have domiciled Microsoft Licensing Incorporated. They mean figuratively, on the construction of a new 520 bridge. Any design improvements, Microsoft says, would "cause yet more delay, increase the cost to taxpayers, and put this vital transportation and economic corridor at risk."

"Increase the cost to taxpayers"! That is pure altruism, which you just don't see a lot of these days. Thanks to their avoidance of Washington state B&O taxes, Microsoft hasn't paid upwards of $700 million on revenue from software licensing. (That's fifteen percent of the bridge's $4.65 billion price tag.) So it's hardly any skin off their nose if the cost to taxpayers goes up.

They're more concerned about the average taxpaying citizen, when it comes to funding infrastructure so that people can drive to and from their Redmond campus more quickly. I, for one, salute Microsoft for this gutsy public stand in defense of our tax dollars.