What drives you crazy about Washington? The aerospace panel answers.

Ben Hempstead: “We have been trying to hire engineers,” he said. Only a few UW graduates have qualified. The rest are from China and India. He said marketing “to our own kids in Washington” would help create an interest in studying aerospace. “We can’t hire people from our own university just down the road.”

Glenn Johnson: “It feels like we want to talk a lot about what has been, instead of what could be … ‘the worst enemy of greatness is good enough,’ and it seems like that’s holding us back,” he said. “Taxation issues, it’s very expensive … it is apparent that we’re losing business out of this state,” he said.

Randall Julin: “The Deloit study really laid it all out: Wage rates, labor relations, cost of living … lack of training, worker’s comp, infrastructure,” he said. “They spent a lot of time and money — our money — to figure these things out,” he said, “and I think we have to look at all those.”

Michel Merluzeau: “It is possible to fix it … what really frustrates me with Washington, to some degree, is the over-reliance on Boeing, to some degree.” He cited Singapore as an example of a place that has set goals and implement them.

John Monroe: “Let’s do a positive first. One of the things that happened in December of 2003 is our state Legislature passed an aerospace incentives package,” he said. “Since then, that incentive package has been extended… that’s a real positive step. One of the things that was really positive about it is that it wasn’t just for the Boeing company.” He said only about half of the aerospace companies are taking advantage of the package. “One of the things I would really like to see our Legislature look at … is one of the areas that we really do fall behind is in our ability to find significant funding for buildings.” He said if 737 is to be built anywhere outside Washington, it is worth $120 to $200 million a year for 20 years in lost revenue. “How many buildings do you think we could help finance with one year’s worth of that B&O revenue.” He said the Legislature is currently limited by the state Constitution by how much they acn help.

Stan Sorscher: When asked by moderator/TV reporter Glenn Furley what his “Number One Beef” with Washington is, said: “If I had a Number One Beef, it would be that we spend so much time worrying about what our Number One Beef is.”

Tags: aerospace