Call it the best of both worlds.
Boeing wants to get $6 million from Oklahoma City for bringing about 900 jobs from Washington to the city, the Oklahoman reports.
At the same time, Boeing will continue collecting tax breaks worth millions from Washington. Those tax incentives will be unaffected by the aerospace giants decision to move work out of state.
The aerospace giant first announced the job moves last fall. In all, the company plans to move about 2,000 jobs out of the state mostly in the next three years.
Boeing wants to use the money from Oklahoma City to help pay for a new $80 million, 290,000-square-foot facility at its current plant there, according to the Oklahoman.
More than half of that new space would be for “cutting-edge lab space,” according to the paper.
In Washington, the Legislature is considering bills to tie the aerospace tax incentives to employment levels, but those bills are effectively dead.
The bills have stalled in the House Finance Committee, and House leadership has shown no interest in moving them forward as written. Even if they did somehow pass the House, they would still have to clear two significant hurdles — the Republican-controlled Senate and getting Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee’s signature.
Nonetheless, legislators and labor are still talking about linking jobs and aerospace tax breaks, and Boeing is monitoring the bills so as not to be caught off guard by any late inning surprises.
Boeing recently announced it is laying off 153 workers in metro Puget Sound in June.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield contributed to this article. Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
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