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'No rubber stamp' for Boeing, say legislators

By Ralph Thomas
Seattle Times Olympia bureau

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And some lawmakers said there would be no automatic approval for final pieces of the Boeing deal. "This is the Legislature, there are no rubber stamps," said Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle.

But rubber stamps are about all Boeing has been getting lately in Olympia. Lawmakers last year rushed to approve Gov. Gary Locke's proposal to give Boeing $3.2 billion in tax breaks over the next 20 years. And no one expects the Legislature to balk at the additional 7E7-related measures Locke is asking for this year.

"If they'd wanted a stadium, we would have built them a stadium," said Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish. "If they'd wanted us to bulldoze Mount Rainier so their planes would take off easier, we'd have done it."

Late last month, Locke signed an agreement committing the state, Everett and Snohomish County to a long list of incentives for Boeing, after the company chose Everett as the site to build its next-generation jetliner.

More details of the agreement emerged yesterday after the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF) circulated copies it obtained through a public-records request. The foundation is a conservative public-policy research organization known for its feisty attacks on state government.

Locke said yesterday there was nothing new in the documents released by the group. He said copies of the agreement were handed to anyone who asked at the signing ceremony. "We never kept anything secret," Locke said.

But many of the details of the deal were spelled out in nearly 50 pages of exhibits and documents that the state did not disclose until pressed by the EFF. Even then, much of the information was redacted, or blacked out, at Boeing's request. State officials say the information is exempt from disclosure because it contains confidential proprietary information.

For instance, the agreement requires the state to pay for an employee-recruitment and training program, and to design and build a 7E7 employee-training center for Boeing. The state will be required to raise at least $10 million for the training center; Locke included $6 million of that in his latest budget request to the Legislature. But in the exhibits obtained by the EFF, most of the details about the recruitment and training provisions were redacted.

"We don't know what it is, but we have to pay for it," said EFF President Bob Williams, holding up documents with blacked-out sections during a briefing with reporters and legislators.

"I was shocked when I saw that," House Appropriations Chairwoman Helen Sommers, D-Seattle, said afterward.

Republican Rep. Lois McMahan of Gig Harbor said she was outraged by the secrecy and said she would try to use her legislative clout to force the state and Boeing to reveal more details. "We need to see what's in that sweet deal," said McMahan.

Lawmakers were relieved yesterday after learning that Boeing was dropping a part of the agreement that would have required the state to spend nearly $5 million to help the company craft a plan for using cargo planes to transport 7E7 segments to the final assembly plant.

Sommers recently raised concerns about whether the provision amounted to an illegal "gift of public funds," but it was not clear whether that had anything to do with Boeing's decision.

Alan Mulally, Boeing's commercial-airplanes chief, was in Olympia yesterday to meet with all four legislative caucuses.

House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, said it was mostly a "thank-you visit" by Mulally. She said no one in her Democratic caucus raised any objections about the 7E7 agreement.

The same was true when Mulally met with Senate Republicans. "I don't have any buyer's remorse," said Sen. Luke Esser, R-Bellevue, who advised the administration's 7E7 bid. "I'm confident these last few items will be agreed to and looked at as part of a whole package, something the Legislature can still be proud of."

Still, lawmakers said they want to take a close look at the portions of the deal that call on the state to shell out more money.

"When we go back to our districts, we have to be able to defend the agreement," said Rep. Brian Sullivan, D-Mukilteo, who represents thousands of Boeing workers.

Kessler agreed, but added: "We have momentum going, and I hope we don't start getting nit-picky and pull back."

Ralph Thomas: 360-943-9882.

The Associated Press and Seattle Times reporter Andrew Garber contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company