Trust OKS $6.3M in incentives for Boeing

The Oklahoma City Economic Development Trust on Tuesday unanimously approved $6.3 million in job incentives that includes Boeing employees hired in the past year to perform maintenance on Air Force jets and engineers being relocated from Wichita.

The incentives are to be paid from a $75 million general-obligation limited tax bond issue approved by voters in 2007.

Boeing was first approved for an allocation of $1.496 million in 2011 based on 232 jobs associated with the C-130 program moving from Long Beach, Calif. A second phase allocation was expected for an estimated 318 jobs attached to the company’s B-1 program, which also was based in Long Beach.

Boeing approached the city in December asking that with looming Defense Department cuts, the C-130 allocation be combined with some B-1 jobs, with the total being changed from 550 to 285, and be retitled as “Boeing Project No. 1”

Boeing’s capital investment costs for expanding operations in Oklahoma City, initially estimated at $2.8 million, increased to $5.1 million. Based on average salaries, capital investment and net new job creation, the recommended allocation for “Boeing Project No. 1” was set at $1.8 million.

Another $4.5 million incentive package was requested for 800 to 900 engineering jobs being moved from Wichita.

Steve Goo, Vice President Aircraft Modernization and Sustainment at Boeing, told trustees the company was able to reassign employees hired to work on the C-130s to other duties in Oklahoma City and avoided layoffs.

He said the company employs 1,300 in Oklahoma City with an annual payroll topping $96 million.