Topeka ? A bill allowing the state to issue $500 million in bonds to help Boeing Wichita secure work on a new jetliner won the endorsement of a state Senate committee Friday.

The full Senate won’t act on the measure until legislators return April 30 from a recess that starts today. But proponents said it was important to get moving on the legislation, which provides that Boeing — not the state — would repay the bonds.

“We obviously can’t dally, because we need to take care of this, this year,” said Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Karin Brownlee, R-Olathe.

“I think there’s a fair amount of optimism and a willingness to do what we can.”

She added, “We sure don’t want those jobs to go to Japan or anyplace else overseas.

Officials of Boeing Co.’s Wichita plant approached legislators just last week seeking money for research and development costs on the next-generation 7E7 jetliner.

The Chicago-based company is studying which of its plants and suppliers will develop and build the 7E7 jetliner, a fuel-efficient mid-sized jet that Boeing wants to begin selling in 2004.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said Friday she was enthusiastic about the bill and its potential for jump-starting the economy.

“I think the precedent that it sets for the state’s willingness to invest in research and development efforts is an important move in economic development,” Sebelius said. “I also think it stabilizes one of the most critical industries we have in this state.”

Senate President Dave Kerr said Boeing would repay the bonds with proceeds from sales of the 7E7 withholding taxes from the paychecks of the employees — as many as 4,000 — who would be hired to work on it.

Under the bill, the bonds would be issued by the Kansas Development Finance Authority and repaid with up to $10 million a year in withholding taxes. After 20 years, those taxes would be deposited in the state general fund for general government uses.

Kerr said that if the withholdings and aircraft sales were insufficient to cover the debt, Boeing would be obligated to make up the difference.

“If the whole project gets canceled, it’s their debt,” said Kerr, R-Hutchinson.

Boeing has not been spared the severe hit to the aviation industry from global recession and the lingering effects on travel from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Earlier this week, Boeing officials said 3,000 layoffs were possible by the end of this year on top of the 30,000 — including 5,000 in Wichita — made in the past two years. The Wichita area’s unemployment rate was 5.9 percent in February.

Boeing lobbyist Bill Jarrell said the bond package would demonstrate to company executives that Boeing Wichita and Kansas want to be part of the 7E7 project.

The biggest unknown, he said, was how the project will be awarded.

“The real worry about not getting the work is that the talent pool goes with the work somewhere else,” Jarrell said.

Sen. Chris Steineger, D-Kansas City, said that given the economy, there was little reason to believe the 7E7 would do more than stabilize Boeing Wichita’s operations.

“It just seems to me that this is not going to turn around in the next two or three years,” Steineger said.