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It's a blank slate right now. As blank as Senate Bill 6117, which most likely will be the main vehicle to give Boeing most of what it wants to keep the company from moving its "second line" of production for 787s to Kansas or China or something.
To keep the "first line" of 787 production here, mostly in Everett, then-Gov. Gary Locke and the Legislature gave Boeing (and some smaller players in the aerospace space) a $3 billion tax break over 20 years. They also made some changes that Boeing wanted to the state unemployment system, and other stuff.
This time?
"We are wanting to put the best case forward to have the next line of the 787 built in Washington," Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, told reporters yesterday.
Lawmakers are making more changes to the unemployment insurance system and are likely to more narrowly limit the reasons an employee can quit working and still be eligible for an unemployment check. (A stalking ex-husband who keeps confronting his ex-wife is just one of 11 examples of "voluntary quits" that make one eligible for unemployment benefits.) That's in a separate bill, by the way.
Also, "soon," Brown said, there will be announcements on what else the Legislature is doing on the UI front for businesses "that results in tax decreases over years" i.e. lower contributions by employers into the unemployment insurance trust fund.
Brown said a $4 billion trust fund gives lawmakers the flexibility to provide tax relief to businesses and still keep the fund solvent, even in a recession.
Brown assured reporters that Boeing is still paying some taxes to the state. So I guess that means we've got room to compete with other states who want Boeing's employment power.
Brown said she expects the governor's office to issue a report in mid-April that will show how Washington stacks up against other states in that competition for aerospace jobs.
(TNT business columnist Dan Voelpel interviewed the Boeing liaison guy on Gov. Chris Gregoire's staff a few weeks ago. I'll try to find a link to his column.)
