OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire invited some folks to Sunday’s rollout of the Boeing Co.’s Dreamliner.
Not friends or family or even other governors. We’re talking world leaders.
“I’ve been writing letters to presidents around the world to please send somebody to visit us,” she said. “The 787 is international.”
Gregoire says she’s exuberant because the unveiling is more than a celebration; it is a historic event with a new class of airplane.
The fact that the aircraft is made in Washington fuels her excitement. She hopes folks throughout the state are excited, too.
“This is a huge deal. They ought to be proud as punch as I am, because you go out there and you say I’m from the great state of Washington. That plane was built in Washington,” she said.
Boeing’s landmark achievement, creating an airliner made with new materials and assembled in a whole new way using world partners, will raise the state’s profile. It will create a buzz about Washington just as Microsoft and Starbucks do.
“People want to know, ‘What else do you have?’ ” Gregoire said. “That means if I’m in Walla Walla, (the attention will) get more people to look for the wine I’m making or the cherries I’m producing in Yakima.”
Case in point, she said, is Chinese President Hu Jintao.
When Hu visited Washington last year, arriving in Everett on a Boeing jet, he spoke with Gregoire about the state’s plan for expanding production of biodiesel and inquired about his country purchasing some.
Gregoire pointed out Hu’s comments came only a few weeks after state lawmakers actually acted to encourage additional production.
“When you have international companies, attention gets focused on them and then people watch what’s going on in the rest of your state,” she said.
Those watching Boeing are seeing success arrive sooner than anticipated.
“I will admit to you, I didn’t expect the Dreamliner to take off like it did,” she said.
That makes the $2.3 billion aerospace incentive package approved in 2003 look like a pretty good investment, she added.
The state steered a slew of tax credits and tax breaks to Boeing and the rest of the industry; the latest installment came last Sundaywith a reduction in the business and occupation tax Boeing and related companies pay the state.
Gross business income from aerospace-related companies rose from 2005 to 2006, resulting in roughly $21 million in tax receipts according to the state Department of Revenue.
“Do I think we’re getting the benefit of the bargain? Yes,” she said.
Gregoire was attorney general when the Legislature passed the package in a special session. She said she viewed it as “investing in the aerospace industry in Washington and not solely about Boeing.”
Today, she said about 47 suppliers are eligible for some element of the package, including companies working for Boeing’s chief competitor.
“We absolutely have an Airbus presence in this state and those firms get the same benefit as those working with Boeing,” she said.
There are grumblings.
Labor unions are disappointed in higher numbers of nonunion jobs at Boeing, the many parts of the 787 produced in other countries and the firm’s contracts with companies that employ nonunion workers.
Interest groups generally opposed to tax breaks for large companies wonder if the deal shouldn’t be revisited given Boeing’s good fortunes.
“A deal is a deal. I don’t see anything that would suggest that they are not living up to their end of the bargain,” Gregoire said.
Another incentive package could be in the offing.
Gregoire said if Boeing decides to start a second production line for the 787 or for an updating of the 737, she wants the work in Washington.
“For anything they’re thinking – a new iteration or a second line, whatever. I’ve made it clear to them that if you do right by us, we’ll do right by you,” she said.
During its unveiling this Sunday, the plane will stay on the ground, leaving the question of when it will fly for a future day.
No one forgets when Airbus showed off its A380 at the 2005 Paris Air Show and the landing gear wouldn’t go up. That proved one in a string of woes that cost Airbus customers for that plane and prestige internationally.
Gregoire isn’t fretting.
“These guys at Boeing know what they’re doing,” she said. “I don’t worry about whether this thing will fly.”
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