Published: Tuesday, May 7, 2013, 12:01 a.m.<\/p>\n
While the industry is diverse, with 200 aerospace suppliers between Arlington and Bothell alone, Boeing remains the big Kahuna -- a colossus the Northwest could lose by attrition to the Palmetto State. To hint at moving seems alarmist, but hints galvanize policymakers. <\/p>\n
Boeing CEO Jim McNerney called Everett an \"attractive place\" to manufacture the next generation of Boeing 777s, The Herald's Michelle Dunlop reports, but Snohomish County's largest employer can be a fickle suitor. <\/p>\n
A couple of generations and the era of Bill Allen and T Wilson was supplanted by Phil Condit's age of hubris. There was the 1997 McDonnell Douglas merger, and the uprooting of corporate headquarters to a Midwest city that will go unnamed. Boeing's board of directors (someone push the panic button) has no Everett-Seattle-Renton roots. <\/p>\n
Washington nevertheless has the foundational goods that can't be duplicated in South Carolina, and company directors understand that. Boeing has invested $1 billion in its Everett plant over the past 5 years. <\/p>\n
A vital infrastructure, broadly defined, has a rising-tide effect. The centerpiece of a keep-'em-here strategy elevates higher ed, K-12, and transportation. It's another reason why lawmakers shouldn't punt on a special-session transpo package. <\/p>\n
Gov. Jay Inslee is positioned to articulate a comprehensive strategy and a strong, clear vision on aerospace. Does he have a game plan and a means to implement it? A blueprint won't be as entertainingly mercenary as South Carolina's $120 million Boeing giveaway, but it should mollify the aerospace sector about predictability, that its vitality and Washington's economic health are interdependent. <\/p>\n
In the final years of the Gregoire era, aerospace execs developed a sense of trust that state government could adapt and work in common cause. And with a visit to Everett this week, Inslee will have a platform to underscore his strategy. <\/p>\n
Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson and regional leaders have quietly urged an Inslee sit-down with McNerney to graduate \"attractive place\" to the no-question place. It's a manageable goal. A promising, bipartisan sign is the Senate Majority Coalition's apparent willingness to yield and support the Governor's Office of Aerospace. <\/p>\n
The Washington Aerospace Partnership, along with labor and business, are mobilized to help. A healthy aerospace sector is more about leadership than it is politics. It's embedded in the soil. <\/p>\n
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The rest is here: <\/p>\n
The Inslee aerospace vision<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Published: Tuesday, May 7, 2013, 12:01 a.m. While the industry is diverse, with 200 aerospace suppliers between Arlington and Bothell alone, Boeing remains the big Kahuna -- a colossus the Northwest could lose by attrition to the Palmetto State. Continue reading