Legit concern but even if out of staters get the jobs it’s still a net gain for the state and the people in the state.
Tate Reeves calling a special session…
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Did you miss the Continental Tire deal? I know that was six or seven years ago now, but $billion+ projects don’t just grow on trees for Mississippi. So yes, not only would the money be available for a project in or near Jackson, it has been made available when the opportunity arises.
OK now do Memphis, it's less than 40 miles away. The point is when you invest hundreds of millions to lure an industry to your state and put it on the state line within 40 miles of almost a million person population center of another state your state is probably not even going to get a majority of the new jobs provided. In fact probably the main reason they're locating there is the access to the Memphis area labor pool. It's still probably still a fair investment if it's legit but they can save their smoke about 2,000 jobs for Mississippi.
Not really. The OG law from the ACA had a 90/10 split after a few years of the Feds 100% picking it up. This was altered by the ARP to give the 12 holdout states additional financial incentives. In addition, the state can always adjust premiums and co-pays associated with the system to generate more revenue.
Here's what experts say about expanding Medicaid in Mississippi
A majority of studies conducted about Medicaid expansion in Mississippi project net positive benefits economically, health-wise or both.
mississippitoday.org
Exactly. Some of these people have never heard a a use tax before. Or what it means to a local economy
That’s crazy. Entergy is basically a capital investment firm. It’s unusual not to spend on building things. I wonder what their justification was for passing on it?
I'm going to ask around but last I heard a month or two ago is that Amazon was coming and we had to build new stations. I thought the work had already started but the only reason I could see them passing on it was getting breakers in time. Like I said earlier, depending on voltage lead time for breakers is 2-4 years right now. They used to be like 25 weeks before Covid
Nah. Corruption and graft.
Not that I like bureaucracy but one thing it does well is because of its slow pace it does a halfway decent job of preventing people and organizations to spend money quickly by going through a process.
One side-effect of that is that it can make corruption and graft less prevalent. Of course I’m not saying that it’s 100 percent successful. Fortunately Shad White and the Department of Audit do a very good job.
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Do you want to commute 40 miles for a job paying $66k a year? Certainly lots of people will do it, but the more jobs on the Mississippi side of the state line, the more people will choose to live on the Mississippi side of the state line.
Also, I think these things tend to balance out. Tennessee is going to make investments where Mississippi residents benefit and vice versa. I'm sure it's mostly federal money, but how much money do you think Tennessee has invested in roads that help Memphis workers leave the state each day to pay their sales tax and property tax in Mississippi?
Most likely, the blue collar portion of this workforce will move from Memphis to DeSoto to Marshall county. People are looking to get out of Memphis proper given the crime. I do suspect that the higher paying management types will come from the company's other operations and live in Collierville/Germantown.
I don't know the economics that well as I am not an economics major but:
Those 2,000 Manufacturing jobs are just the tip of the iceberg. For everyone of those jobs, you have, grocery stores, doctors, lawyers, carpenters, police, firemen, road builders .... the list goes on and on to be all kinds of support jobs to even the new DG and Sonic that get put in. Manufacturing jobs create more jobs.
Depending on what study you believe 2.2 up to 7.7 jobs are created for support by one manufacturing job. That's thousands of jobs created.
Maybe, but they do it better in most every free country in the world. We supposed to be the richest and we can't even feed our children.
And I believe the MS Hospital Association had a plan that would have resulted in $0 appropriations from the State of MS if we adopted Medicaid expansion. What happened? MS leadership said no. I do not understand that decision. It would be political malpractice in any other state, but not here.
This point actually parallels one of the issues with the generic term "medicaid expansion" that - apropos of nothing - dudehead brought up earlier.
The whole 'presumptive eligibility' issue is a real one, and it costs the taxpayers (and hospitals left in the lurch) a lot of money. It needs to be discussed before we just go willy-nilly into "expansion", but no one on the Big Government side ever wants to address it.
Since you mentioned how you like the slow pace of bureaucracy and that it can prevent people from spending money by actually going through a process, I thought I'd point out the similarities. Some people want to be on both sides of that argument.
The jury is still out. Some studies projected we would benefit overall, but there are multiple studies from other states that did jump out and expand right away that say the costs are way more than projected, and overall healthcare benefits and mortality rates are lower than they originally thought they would be. Some of this is because when you add a quarter million+ new (relatively less healthy) people to the rolls but add 0 more doctors, it causes major delays and stress on the system.
You also have issues like presumptive eligibility, free healthcare as a replacement for those who now already have private insurance, and in Mississippi - you could quickly have the same number of healthcare welfare recipients as you do workers. That's a bad recipe. Not to mention the whole discussion about what happens when the feds inevitably run out of money and pull the plug on Mississippians who have gotten used to all this "free" government healthcare... what happens then?
I agree the medicaid system needs to be discussed, and probably thoughtfully changed, to benefit the citizens of the state who really need it (pregnant moms, the disabled, low income kids, etc.) But we have to be smart about it. And they are trying - Delbert and the legislature are going to vote on modifications this session, I would imagine.
You don't need a factory and 2,000 jobs to get a Dollar General. You don't need 20 jobs to get a Dollar General.
I was driving through the literal middle of nowhere a few weeks ago. Not a house in sight, but I saw a yellow glow on the horizon and right in front of a giant cow pasture was a Dollar General in all its glory.
In my opinion MS needs more out of staters.
It's kind of chicken and egg but generally speaking people relocate to where people relocate.
Not as familiar with this as it happened after my departure from the area.
You may very well be on the money, and I hope so. I’m simply hoping is that this isn’t another “false start” — there have been a history of missteps in prior decades
They'll probably ask for exemptions on the property taxes. But they can't on use taxes.
Great points here.
Something I would note is that the Goal if and when this is addressed is to have a good, workable solution.
Waiting for a perfect answer is indecisive and causes delay. But come up with something good and fine tune it gradually.
No question about this. And we need them in Jackson. Of course, people don't relocate to places like Jackson, in general.
So, how to incentivize? Your guess is as good as mine. Natchez was offering people money to move there a few years ago, not sure if they still are or not.
Dollar for dollar Rankin County is the place to live in the Metro area. My house is value at 240K in Brandon. Build it in Madison it becomes 320K. I make Madison living money and grew up in Madison Country. I will inherit a lot of land in Madison County. I will never live there. I just see the value of the dollar so much better in Rankin. I do drive 30 miles one way to work every day to North Side of Jackson, but I make way more than the 66K.
They are building a new complex in Brandon. It is going to have High Dollar Condos, shopping and restaurants. I have a feeling Brandon will follow Madison in growing and becoming more expensive.
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That's fine, but not really what I'm talking about. Generally people in the Jackson Metro are folks that are from MS. I'd say at least 80%. So you don't get much diversity of thought. If we can't entice rich out-of-staters, I say let's bring in immigrants into Jackson - I'm serious as a heart attack.
But back to the big project win - while I'm glad this is in MS, and we will certainly benefit, it's really something that just adds to the Memphis Metro.
Speaking of Rankin County - we really need a big project win there too, and I'm surprised it hasn't happened, with so much roadway infrastructure around and now completed. We have Continental to the west, Nissan to the north. Need something out there east of Brandon, to spur some development and bring Rankin into the 21st century. I swear all these folks still think it's 1992.
This is what i was talking about. I think they are running a little behind schedule. I agree Brandon has so much room for growth on the East Side. I have notice over the past 15 years the traffic has gotten worse. They don't have the roads.
New mixed-use development coming to the city of Brandon (wlbt.com)
Money is the answer what was the question? ***
Seriously, it's jobs. Job opportunities ARE the incentive. People mainly relocate for better job opportunities. We have the answer to the test question but the equation or algorithm needs quite a bit of work. You get no credit for the answer if you can't show your work ***
All "leaders" in MS public or private should be doing everything possible to bring more job opportunities to the State. Everything else follows exponentially.
I gotcha.
Yeah I remember that mixed-use development. That's one of those deals that I'll be surprised if it ever happens. When I talk about big project wins, I'm talking big-time employers like Continental and Nissan that pump money into the economy, so that 'mixed-use' developer junk like this actually does happen in the future.
Unfortunately, the City Leadership I think don't want industry. They want car dealership, restaurants and retail. For example, that space just south of the railroad on Hwy 18 was cleaned up, pipes laid and zoned. It is a big space, but it has been nothing 10 years.
Agree, but we are doing everything we can to do this already. That's a competitive process, and we've had some wins. Some good and some bad.
I think we're going to have to get more creative than just that.
What if we could solve the immigration issues and spur economic development in not only MS but the entire South/Southwest?
Imagine if a program existed where you could sweat equity your way to citizenship. I know we have green cards and other work visa stuff but it's controlled pretty tightly unlike the boarder. What if illegals could come forward and qualify for work programs that would contribute to earned citizenship? They would be vetted, paid fairly, pay taxes, be able to use our banking system and have to stay out of any legal trouble for x years and then they earn citizenship.
Politically, the trade off would be a pathway to citizenship by having to earn it in exchange for closing and securing the border.
I think people may have too high of expectations of these huge projects. 2,000 jobs is great. But we have almost 3 million residents. If every job is filled by somebody relocating and they bring a spouse and two children, that's increasing the population of the state by less than .3%. Which granted .3% increase in population from one project would be incredible, particularly when we've been stagnant overall, but that's still not really going to look like a game changer when you look across the state as a whole.
We need a dozen projects like this and even then, the real growth would be from the small businesses established to partner with those employers and all the businesses that are created in response to the additional disposable income flowing in the area.
Maybe, but nothing moves the needle more than job opportunities just read any analysis or report on "why people relocate."
Now, where you may need to be more creative is how you are competing for these job opportunities. Just like in business you may need some loss leaders whatever that looks like in economic development. Net net a loss leader business deal may be an overall positive to the State or city due to it's exponential development opportunity.
Bring manufacturing jobs to MS. As much as you possibly can. Sell the foundation of infrastructure with the interstates, the river, the coast. Make it and ship it with good paying jobs that are still less costly to companies than other locations. All the fancy sexy jobs and development will follow once the base is strong.
The entire I-69 corridor in Desoto and Marshall county is to exploding. So many projects planned. You will have “New Hernando” along 69 in the next 5 years. Starting from the exit with the new Hernando High School through Marshall County.
55 needs to be widened from Southaven to Hernando and they are begging MDOT to do something because it’s becoming a major issue.
55 needs to be widened from Southaven to Hernando and they are begging MDOT to do something because it’s becoming a major issue.
Yup. You used to get big projects with access to infrastructure, maybe access to some natural resources or a key input or a key market or whatever combination is important for a particular industry. Now workforce is usually one of if not the biggest concerns. Most site selectors aren't going to put a project with high paying jobs in a place like jackson and hope people will relocate. They want a place where the workforce is already there or where they know people will gladly relocate, which usually those places are the same although occasionally somewhere gets popular enough that they will take a chance on attracting people.
Dude.....
You can't get to 12 before you get to 1. Talk about finding the negative. I thought I had already done that by saying it was essentially Memphis.
I was just responding to Mr. Cook's comment about it being another potential "false start". Neither the Nissan Plant, nor Airbus, nor the Toyota Plant, nor Continental Tire Plant, nor Steel Dynamics, etc. etc. moved Mississippi from the bottom of most categories. That doesn't mean they haven't been and won't continue to be really good for the State. It just takes a lot to move the needle on the whole if that's what you're expecting which I took Mr. Cook's comments to be getting at. But these projects can still be a huge blessing to the thousand or so workers that get direct jobs plus the workers that get jobs indirectly funded by this, or even those that just get slightly higher wages b/c of more competition for workers.
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