Topeka ? The Senate approved a bill Wednesday to issue $500 million in bonds to help Boeing Wichita secure work on the aircraft-maker’s new jetliner.

The 34-6 vote, which sent the measure to the House, came on the Legislature’s first day back at work from a 3 1/2-week break — and less than two months after officials of Boeing Co.’s Wichita plant approached the state seeking support.

Fierce competition is expected among Boeing plants in the United States and abroad for the assignment to develop and build the “7E7,” a mid-size jetliner with high fuel efficiency that the company wants to begin selling in 2004.

Boeing, not the state, would repay the bonds authorized by the bill, which was designed to secure 4,000 Kansas jobs.

The bill does not mention Boeing by name. However, it specifies that its provisions apply only to a firm that has an annual payroll of $600 million, pays its Kansas employees an average salary of $50,000 and owns $1 billion in property in Kansas.

Boeing would pay off the bonds from two sources: revenue on sales of the jet and the Kansas income taxes withheld from employees involved in the 7E7 project. If those sources fell short of retiring the bonds, Boeing would be obligated to make up the difference.

Details of the arrangement between the state and company would be spelled out in a contract negotiated by the Department of Commerce and Housing.

“I think it’s very important to secure the project,” said Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Karin Brownlee, R-Olathe. “We need to partner with this industry to help it flourish again.”

Boeing has suffered in the global recession and the lingering effects on travel from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Recently, 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.

A few senators criticized the bill for targeting Boeing for assistance.

Sen. Robert Tyson, R-Parker, said the state should attract businesses through low taxes, not “government selection,” while Sen. Ed Pugh described the bill as watered-down socialism.

“At least in socialism, you start with the premise that everybody’s going to share, and it’s total planning of the economy,” said Pugh, R-Wamego.