The News Tribune Business Team will keep you updated on what's happening in the South Sound and beyond. Check here for news about economic development, aerospace, shopping and much more.
Talk to us
Got something to say? Here's the place to say it. We welcome your comments on what's going on in business in the South Sound that we should be discussing, reporting or analyzing here on our blog or in the pages of The News Tribune.
Contributors
Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
- All
- Aerospace (1477)
- Banking (179)
- Commercial Real Estate (145)
- Consumer Alert (28)
- Downtown Tacoma (225)
- Economic Development (273)
- Employment/Workplace (283)
- Food (32)
- General (1920)
- Labor (178)
- Port and trade (275)
- Residential Real Estate (77)
- Restaurants (145)
- Retail (63)
- Shopping (320)
- Technology (133)
- Tourism (742)
- Your view (7)
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| << < | > >> | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | |||||
- October 2009 (59)
- September 2009 (83)
- August 2009 (109)
- July 2009 (98)
- June 2009 (107)
- May 2009 (108)
- April 2009 (124)
- March 2009 (100)
- February 2009 (95)
- January 2009 (112)
- December 2008 (100)
- November 2008 (101)
- More...
XML Feeds- artman77
- Guest Users: 406
You may have seen the story in the Seattle PI today about the $81,847 the Port of Seattle commissioners spent on travel last year.
The headline "Investment or junkets?" sums up the story. Some question the true benefit of the trips, which rarely come with hard and fast results, such as a direct increase in trade tied to the visit.
But others, including the the Port of Seattle Chief Executive Tay Yoshitani, say they are necessary for keeping commissioners informed on business issues and customer needs.
The Port of Tacoma commission's travel budget for 2006 – $98,400 – is more than the Port of Seattle commission spent last year. The budget includes $112,000 for commission travel this year.
"We are well below the budgeted item for 2007," said Mike Wasem, the Port of Tacoma's spokesman. He didn't have travel spending per commissioner or the exact amount spent in 2006 or this year readily available.
As with Seattle, the Port of Tacoma commission president typically does the most travel.
For example Commission President Dick Marzano was in China in September to celebrate the signing of the NYK Line lease and attend a vessel christening. He was more recently in Virginia for the American Association of Port Authorities annual meeting.
Marzano said today that the trips are an important part of dealing with the port's customers. This is especially true for companies based in Asia where there's a great respect for government officials, he said.
"No one takes advantage of it," Marzano said. "When I went to China I think I spent as much time in the air as on the ground."
Commissioner Connie Bacon is in Atlanta right now as part of the Governor's economic development commission.
She will be in Tianjin, China in November for the World Shipping Summit and to meet with people from Fuzhou to solidy plans for a trade office there.
She each trip has a different benefit including meeting with customers to encourage business and to learn more pending commission decisions that could involve hundreds of millions of dollars.
