Originally published June 8, 2011 at 6:50 PM | Page modified June 9, 2011 at 6:23 AM
Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday named Seattle attorney Tayloe Washburn as her senior adviser for an effort to convince Boeing that the successor to its 737 airliner should be built in Washington state.
The governor's announcement came about a week before she is scheduled to leave for the Paris Air Show, where she and Washburn hope to woo aerospace suppliers to locate here.
Washburn, whose position is unpaid, will oversee a volunteer coalition of business, labor and community leaders. He was the co-chair of a coalition that marshaled statewide support for Boeing's winning bid on the U.S. Air Force refueling-tanker contract in February.
Boeing expects to continue building the current single-aisle 737s in Renton for many years. It has yet to commit to launching a replacement plane ? as opposed to updating the engines on the current 737 line ? and hasn't announced any specifics such as the model's size or what material would be used.
Mike Bair, the Boeing vice president leading work on the program, has said the company may want a cluster of major supplier plants near its final-assembly site if it does build a new plane.
Boeing's decisions on the successor to the 737 isn't expected until late this year at the earliest.
Washburn said he understood that the stakes are high.
"What we're really talking about is not just one plane but the next generation of aerospace planes and components," he said.
Gregoire said Washington, with 84,000 aerospace workers and 650 supply companies, already has the trained labor force and expertise to build the 737's replacement.
Gregoire also said the state improved its chances of landing the assembly site by addressing several of Boeing's concerns in the last legislative session. The state passed bills reforming unemployment insurance and workers' compensation; it also invested more in work-force development and higher education.
To win the final assembly plant for the 787 Dreamliner in 2003, the state offered a package of tax breaks initially valued at more than $3.2 billion over 20 years.
Gregoire said it was too early to know whether a similar package might be offered for the 737 replacement.
"I don't want anything closed at this point," she said. "Some people are very opposed to tax incentives. If a tax incentive for a minimal amount brings in millions of dollars and thousands of jobs, that's a good investment."
Information from Seattle Times archives is included in this story. J.B. Wogan: 206-464-2206 or jwogan@seattletimes.com
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