A better question is why wouldn’t it?

The El Segundo, Calif.-based company that delivers kidney dialysis services around the country is doing what any company would do – taking advantage of a situation that might help it reduce costs and increase profits.

If cities like Tacoma and states like Washington are willing to offer tax breaks and other public funding to keep big employers, DaVita would be silly – even financially irresponsible – not to grab them.

DaVita didn’t create the atmosphere that allows companies to set up bidding wars. That was begun years ago, ironically by a business that has been deemed by federal courts to be a nonbusiness, exempt from antitrust laws. That would be Major League Baseball, which wrote the textbook on getting ladles of tax dollars.

All sports franchises had to do was threaten to move a beloved team elsewhere (and persuade the people who run those elsewheres to play along). In nearly every case, it worked.

But while pro sports leagues created the technique, The Boeing Co. brought it into the private sector and perfected it, at least around here.

First, the aerospace company won $60 million in tax breaks from Chicago and the State of Illinois to move a few hundred corporate office folks.

It then launched a second round of civic bidding with its competition to site the assembly plant for the 787. Washington won – or perhaps bought – that race. The Legislature gave up $3.2 billion in future tax collections to keep the plant in the state. The state also paid for road improvements, a $30 million dock that turned out to be unnecessary, and a training center.

That worked out so well for Boeing that it has begun to set the stage for a third contest – this one to host the plant for the jetliner that will eventually replace the mid-sized 737.

Russell Investments must have learned from the Boeing example. Not just that there is money to be had but that seeking it can lead to bad feelings among taxpayers. Boeing looked greedy by asking, so Russell escaped that by not really asking. It continues to act as though it doesn’t even realize that cities and developers are drooling for a chance to host the company.

Altogether, Tacoma, the state and the feds have developed a package worth $140 million. But Russell has declined to comment throughout the competition, so no one knows if it will be enough.

Now comes DaVita. Russell employs 1,100 people downtown with promises of hundreds more if it stays. DaVita employs 850 and also predicts expansion. Russell jobs pay more, while DaVita is a solid employer of workers in its billing, accounting, information technology and government reporting sections.

DaVita has the city’s interest. But who’s next?

Clearly, these things start at the top of the food chain and work down. And the relative size and attractiveness of the corporate fish depends on the size of the pond. DaVita wouldn’t make much of a splash in Seattle or Portland, but it does in Tacoma.

Still, there’s a point where a company is too small to bother with – even in a downtown as seemingly desperate as Tacoma’s. Whales are whales and plankton are plankton and someone has to pay for government services.

Lawmakers and council members argue that the governments would lose all taxes if these companies left so that’s why it is worth it to cut a deal to preserve some revenue and some jobs. But how small do you have to be before the government says go ahead and leave?

Which leads to the big public policy questions: Is it fair to collect taxes not uniformly, not on an ability to pay, but on the ability to move? And in addition to being more fair, wouldn’t it be more productive to spread the same resources across all businesses?

Peter Callaghan: 253-597-8657

peter.callaghan@thenewstribune.com

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