Boeing has given no money to either side of the fight over Initiative 645, the ballot measure that would repeal Washington's new 9.9% tax on household income above $1 million. Neither have Microsoft or Amazon.

The neutrality from Everett's largest employer matters here. Boeing employs more than 30,000 workers in the city, according to KOMO News. The company launched a new 737 MAX final assembly line at its Everett factory on July 6, Aerospace Global News reported, and has been recruiting more than 100 factory workers per week in the Pacific Northwest to staff the expansion.

The new line, known internally as the North Line, occupies space inside the Everett facility freed after 747 production ended and 787 Dreamliner assembly moved to South Carolina.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said during the company's first-quarter earnings call in April that the line would start at a low production rate to demonstrate conformity to the FAA, with a target of 52 aircraft per month "when the entire production system is ready."

Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin told KOMO News in January that Boeing's reach in the city is deep. "There's probably not a person in our community that isn't somehow connected to the Boeing Company," Franklin said.

Yet Boeing, along with Microsoft and Amazon, has stayed on the sidelines of I-645. The Seattle Times reported that the companies traded their opposition for leverage against tax proposals they consider more threatening, including a wealth tax on stock holdings and a statewide expansion of Seattle's JumpStart payroll tax.

That is a sharp reversal from 2010, when the same companies bankrolled opposition to an income tax initiative. Then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer donated $425,000. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos gave $100,000. Boeing contributed $75,000. Voters rejected that measure.

This year, the pro-repeal campaign has raised about $2 million. The opposition, fueled by public-sector unions, has raised more than $12 million, with the state teachers union contributing more than $3 million alone, according to the Times.

Washington Roundtable President Rachel Smith, who was involved in tax negotiations with lawmakers, told the Times the neutrality does not mean satisfaction. "We are concerned generally about the state of business taxes in Washington state. It is not a single tax. It is the stacking of taxes …" she said.

At a Sept. 14 press conference in Seattle, Microsoft President Brad Smith warned against a statewide payroll tax. "If Washington State passed a payroll tax, it would be like waving a flag asking businesses to move jobs out of the state as fast as possible," Smith said, as KOMO News reported.

State Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, said at the same event that the chances of a statewide payroll tax are "vanishingly unlikely," so long as voters defeat I-645.

Unless overturned by voters or the courts, the tax takes effect on 2028 incomes, with first payments due in 2029. A "no" vote on I-645 upholds the tax. A "yes" vote repeals it.