Hands out for taxpayer bailout – for ports

In keeping with Great Recession price-cutting, I declare today three-for-one Thursday.

Port cooperation – It was touching to see all of the big West Coast ports hanging together in Washington, D.C., last month. Despite suggesting for years that cooperation between the ports of Tacoma and Seattle would violate all that is holy and American, our port bosses got over their reluctance and joined arm-in-arm with their hands out.

At issue is paying to improve the rail corridors between the coastal ports and the Midwest and eastern markets. The ports want the feds to fund billions of dollars in projects.

The boogeymen this time are super ports being built in Canada and Mexico, which the ports claim will steal our containers. But now that they have gotten all cozy, perhaps the ports could talk about how to fund transportation and environmental work the old-fashioned way – by tapping into the revenue stream of the shipped goods themselves.

When container taxes have been suggested, each state says they will be at a disadvantage if they act alone. But if all West Coast states impose the fees, which will be passed onto the price of the goods, no port is disadvantaged. If Canada and Mexico don’t want to charge similar fees, they can be assessed at the borders.

I know it is more fun to have taxpayers cover the costs, but it is more fair to have the steamship lines – and in turn the consumers of cheap Asian imports – pay the true cost of moving freight.

Boeing rhetoric – Nothing gets the juices flowing in Olympia quite like the threat of Boeing leaving. So this week when the aerospace behemoth announced it has purchased a struggling supplier in South Carolina, the press releases flew out of the Legislative Building like a flock of seagulls.

While Boeing said the purchase was related to supply problems for the current 787 program, Republicans asserted that it was really the first step toward taking the entire company out of state. A Seattle Times story saying the company had given its unions an ultimatum fueled the speculation.

“This is not a complicated issue,” said Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla. “If we don’t make our state more attractive to employers, I fear we could see Boeing and other companies taking steps like the one we saw today – steps that could lead them right out of Washington.”

That led Rep. Brendan Williams, D-Olympia, to accuse the Republicans of using the purchase of a Vought Aircraft plant to bash labor.

“The constant threat of Boeing relocation is economic terrorism and ignores the fact that Boeing production problems are attributable to outsourcing, as even conservatives like Lou Dobbs have noted, and not Boeing’s highly-trained, productive, and unionized Washington workforce,” Williams wrote.

Washington has made repeated concessions to Boeing, not the least of which is the nearly $3 billion in tax breaks given to secure 787 assembly. How low should we go? Williams wondered.

“If the price of keeping Boeing is to turn Washington into South Carolina, then Boeing is welcome to Mark Sanford’s amorous embrace.” (In case you’ve been in cave for the last month, Sanford is the governor embroiled in a sex scandal.)

Shrinking pamphlet – Pierce County officials are cutting candidate statements in the 2009 voters pamphlets from 200 words to 150 words and covering the act in a cloak of fiscal responsibility. The cuts save $33,000 in printing costs.

It must be noted, however, that the decision was made by people who don’t need the pamphlet to build name familiarity with voters. By making the pamphlet less informative, these incumbents will benefit and challengers will suffer.

Voters like the pamphlet. They rely on it. And I’ve never heard a voter say it is too expensive and should be reduced.

By the way, this item is 106 words long.

Peter Callaghan: 253-597-8657

peter.callaghan@thenewstribune.com

blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics