WICHITA

Boeing bond law said to be lacking safeguards

A Kansas economic revitalization law passed last year to help Boeing’s Wichita plant compete for work on a new jet lacks basic accountability safeguards, its opponents told a legislative panel Thursday night.

Jeff McCourt, Illinois project director for Good Jobs First in Washington, D.C., told lawmakers the law did not include clear requirements for job creation or capital investment, and did not set job quality standards or require public disclosure of costs and benefits.

The testimony came during a special legislative session in Wichita on Boeing’s responsibilities to the community.

Last year, Kansas lawmakers agreed to issue up to $500 million in bonds to support the jet project, with the bonds to be repaid through income taxes generated by new workers at Boeing.

SABETHA

City may go alone in quest for airport

Mayor Norm Schmitt vowed Thursday that his city still would pursue the Northeast Kansas Regional Airport, even though Hiawatha has voted to end a joint effort to build the airport.

Schmitt said he would continue pushing the project.

“At this point in time, the city of Sabetha remains strong in the application,” Schmitt said.

Hiawatha Mayor Leon Trant said the project’s uncertainty had become a “detriment” to his city’s economic development. The town council voted Tuesday to end its interest in the airport.

Without Hiawatha, Sabetha taxpayers would have to pay both cities’ shares of the project.

According to the most recent estimate in 1998, the project is expected to cost almost $5.4 million. While the FAA would pay for most of the project, the cities’ combined share was $963,000.