Weekly interest and loan rates | Northwest stock contest 2003 Tax tips | Consumer affairs | Home values

7E7 Watch
Texas governor files suit to keep cover on state's Boeing package

By Dominic Gates
Seattle Times aerospace reporter

	Rick Perry
	E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

In a highly public gamble, Washington's legislators put more than $3.2 billion in tax breaks on the table to win Boeing's 7E7 final-assembly site.

But Texas is keeping its hand secret, and Gov. Rick Perry is going to court to keep it that way.

Perry's office filed suit against the Texas Attorney General's Office last week, challenging an open-records ruling that would make public Texas' 7E7 incentives.

In June, Alfred Ehm, a member of the Texas Central Rail-Corridor Coalition in San Antonio, requested the state reveal the package that it mailed to Boeing on June 20, the deadline for 7E7 site submissions.

"I'm trying to make a point that the government cannot receive and spend taxpayer money and claim they're not a public agency," Ehm told the Austin American-Statesman.

The state's Department of Economic Development, run by the governor's office, objected.

"Once a company, whether it is Boeing or any other, has made its decision on where to go, all of that information will be public," said Kathy Walt, a spokeswoman for Perry.

"But to have to lay out your incentives prior to a decision is like showing your hand in a poker game."

The relevant Texas law states that "unless and until an agreement is made with (a) business prospect, information about a financial or other incentive being offered" is excepted from a legal requirement of public disclosure.

Citing that clause, the Texas Attorney General's Office in October ruled the state could withhold some information but had to reveal other data.

"If Texas is forced to disclose at this particular time in negotiations the details of what it is offering," Walt said, "it will kill economic development in the state."

With the 7E7 site decision expected in mid-December, this case may soon be moot.

Mitsubishi hiring locally

Out-of-work Boeing engineers are applying for structural-engineering temporary positions in Everett.

But they won't be working for Boeing.

At least two contract positions paying up to $55 an hour for experienced people are available from Dec. 1 through contract recruiter Volt.

The engineers will be doing work for Mitsubishi.

Volt initially confirmed these details when asked if such positions were open, then offered only a "no comment" to an inquiry from a reporter.

The jobs will be on site at Boeing, with some travel required to Nagoya, Japan, according to an e-mail circulating among ex-Boeing workers.

People familiar with Boeing's plan for 7E7 supplier contracts maintain Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has been assigned the design and manufacture of the wing of the proposed jet.

Boeing will share its technology with whomever gets the wing contract.

Everett has a future

When John Quinlivan, head of the Everett factory, gave an upbeat presentation to managers Oct. 30, some employees were frankly worried.

Quinlivan's internal presentation laid out the current state of the Everett site and its future.

"The Everett site story was developed to explain the future of the site and the future of our programs to employees," Quinlivan told managers.

He went on to talk about the prospects of the 747, 767 and 777 programs. The 777 has a bright future and the 767 will continue, thanks to the Air Force tanker deal, Quinlivan said.

He even waxed optimistic about the 747 program, which is much less healthy.

"We anticipate that we will be doing this for a very, very long time," Quinlivan concluded.

But employees noticed he spoke as if the 7E7 didn't exist.

Boeing spokeswoman Debbie Heathers said that shouldn't be read as if the 7E7 decision were already made.

"We purposely didn't talk about the 7E7 because we were focusing on the three current programs," she said.

"We certainly do want to give the message that our products have a future," Heathers added.

Still, the timing of this — just weeks before Boeing is to announce a final-assembly site for the 7E7 — struck employees as odd.

If Everett gets the 7E7, there will be no need for a campaign to convince them Everett has a future.

If the 7E7 goes elsewhere, so may the future of Boeing airplane manufacturing.

In that case, it would take a lot more than a presentation to restore morale.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company