Gregoire needs to do more for Boeing and state competitiveness

With much fanfare last week, Gov. Chris Gregoire released her "business case" for Boeing to place its second 787 assembly line in Everett.

And it hit the state business community like a lead balloon — barely more than a "pros" list that doesn't refute the "cons," with some magazine press clippings thrown in. No sweeteners. No promises.

Seems the audience for this 32-page document isn't Boeing, but really anybody who might blame the governor if the company decides to place its second 787 line in South Carolina. It's not fooling anyone.

Nevertheless, the governor presented the package to Jim Albaugh, new CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, a little more than a week ago. I can't help but wonder if that meeting was a little like a counseling session with an eye-rolling, wristwatch-checking estranged spouse who is actively seeking a court date.

Not four days later, news came out of North Charleston, S.C., that Boeing indeed had filed permits that, if approved, would let the company begin constructing a building. Boeing insists no decision has been made.

The governor's pitch omits some major business issues Boeing and other businesses are concerned about — such as workers' compensation reform. The report does compare Washington's unemployment insurance trust fund solvency (it's good) to that of South Carolina (bad, which means expect higher taxes). But astonishingly, the pitch ignores the system's actual costs — something the governor's office could have copied out of the handy new 2010 Competitiveness Redbook, published by the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy.

Let me be of service: Washington ranked second highest in unemployment insurance taxes for the average full-time employee — about $563 — for 2008. Then drag your finger down to No. 34 South Carolina, which charged $146. That's a little over one-quarter as much.

But the bigger problem is that the governor seems to be running from the most central issue in Boeing's decision — whether labor will agree not to strike in 2012. Last fall's two-month strike — the fourth in two decades — delayed 105 aircraft and cost billions.

"Only Boeing and its unions can negotiate labor-management agreements," the report says. True enough. A spokesman said the governor is trying to stay out of it.

But here is where the governor's line is most disingenuous. She has not been neutral in that relationship. Last fall, she visited the strike line three times. Sure, she was in a fierce battle for re-election, but she was still governor of the state that helped put the world into the sky, and she picked a side.

So, I'm looking at this 32-page entreaty to Boeing, and wondering where is her 32-page business case to the union. Why isn't she more strongly encouraging her union supporters to see the peril that exists, not in the next five years, but in the next 30?

It was only nine years ago that Seattle-founded Boeing moved its headquarters to Chicago, which was a shock.

But a chastened state rallied, fought fiercely for and won the 2003 competition to assemble the 787 in Everett — a huge vote of Boeing confidence. Work on business competitiveness geared up only to sputter during Gregoire's tenure, which began in 2005. By 2009, with the economy in a tailspin, the last legislative session was rife with anti-business bills and some Democratic lawmakers actually suggested repealing Boeing tax breaks to help fill the $9 billion budget hole.

So the governor pushes some paper into Albaugh's hands and leaves the meeting with a shrug. "If we should, beyond my control, lose that second 787 — I'm not throwing up my hands," she told The Associated Press. She promises to work to keep Boeing jobs.

What are you waiting for, governor? This is not beyond your control. How about some sincere promises to reboot state competitiveness?

Kate Riley's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is kriley@seattletimes.com