Inslee aims to grow aerospace jobs with tax incentives, education

Jay Inslee speaks at the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance annual meeting Wednesday evening at the Lynnwood Convention Center.

Gov. Jay Inslee offered a number of central elements in his plan to encourage Washington state as an aerospace cluster to several rounds of applause at the Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance annual meeting Wednesday evening at the Lynnwood Convention Center.

Among the ideas that seemed to be especially well received by the manufacturing executives were a proposal to create tax incentives to encourage Washington?s carbon-fiber industry, and a tax exemption for the storage and repair of large private aircraft, including VIP Boeing jets.

He said there would be no loss from exempting these aircraft, because their owners don?t bring them to Washington anyway, but instead send them to low-tax areas elsewhere in the world.

As for the carbon-fiber tax incentive, he called it ?one of the best opportunities that Washington has,? adding, ?We want to be seen worldwide as the carbon-fiber capital of the world."

Other points included growing a skilled work force with 500 new student slots and creating a national center for aviation biofuels in the state.

In his remarks before the roughly 400 delegates to the aerospace meeting, Inslee emphasized his roots in aerospace, remembering when he got to climb aboard a Boeing 707 when he was 10 years old.

?I thought I?d died and gone to heaven,? he said, calling himself ?an unabashed addict of the aerospace industry.?

He said he wants any company thinking of investing in Washington to contact him before it does, adding that he also wants to talk to any executive who might take a company out of the state.

?I think we are an extremely attractive place for international investors in aerospace,? he said, adding that after a conversation with an Airbus executive, he?s hoping that Airbus will source more of its parts from Washington.

Steve Wilhelm covers manufacturing, aerospace and trade for the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Source: http://feeds.bizjournals.com/~r/bizj_seattle/~3/21GeVSwCwdw/inslee-aims-to-grow-aerospace-jobs.html

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