Congressman Sullivan holds aerospace roundtable meeting

Monday, March 10th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Is there anything the federal government can do to rescue the ailing airlines? That was just one of the questions during a roundtable meeting Monday with First District Congressman John Sullivan and several Tulsa-area aerospace officials.

News on 6 business reporter Steve Berg was at the meeting and says they were talking about aerospace, but ultimately they're talking about Tulsa. "32,000 people work in the aerospace industry here. It has a $960-million payroll for our community and a $3.3-billion impact." US Congressman John Sullivan met with officials from Nordam, Boeing, Honeywell, and others.

Each has a different set of problems. In the case of Boeing for example, they've had trouble for years with the European plane-builder Airbus, because Europe can directly subsidize the aircraft business. Steven Hendrickson with the Boeing Corporation, "They can come up with some money that we're not able to, because the government can come in and directly subsidize some of the work that we would be competing for in this country that our law says we can't directly subsidize ourselves."

Other companies' concerns are not so global. Some want to create a stronger alliance with the local Vo-Tech system, so they keep a steady supply of trained workers.

Sullivan says he's going to gather all of these opinions and says some may find their way into an airline funding re-authorization measure that's in the works. But he says there is steps government can take immediately to help the airlines. "For example, allowing a bigger depreciation on an airplane that means they get to deduct more on their taxes the first year, that means that people would buy more planes."

Sullivan says he and the Tulsa aerospace industry leaders will form a strategy group to work together to fight for whatever airline business is left.

Sullivan is not without some clout on Capitol Hill. He's on the House Aviation Subcommittee.