Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret says a major project proposed for Lafayette is one of 15 in jeopardy across the state if the Legislature cuts the megafund.
Last week the House Appropriations Committee amended House Bill 1, the $25 billion state spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1, to eliminate $81.8 million in existing funding for Louisiana’s Mega-Project Development Fund. With site location decisions anticipated in the next two to four months on all 15 of these major projects, the change threatens every high potential mega-project LED is actively pursuing.
The Mega-Project Development Fund is for projects that generate at least 500 direct new jobs and/or $500 million in capital investment.
Moret says those 15 projects — Louisiana has already been selected a finalist in all of them — could potentially mean more than 27,000 jobs for the state.
“We are in the finals for a major headquarters project in Lafayette right now for which a final company decision is anticipated in the next few weeks,” Moret told The Independent Friday morning. “We will lose that project and more than 500 jobs if the mega fund is not restored.”
Moret noted that the proposal would eliminate money that was appropriated into the Mega-Project Development Fund a year ago. "Specifically, they are proposing to eliminate funds that already have been pledged for major business expansion and recruitment projects," he says. "This is an important distinction because LED’s proposals for large business expansions and recruitment projects typically are explicitly tied to the available dollars in the Mega-Project Development Fund."
Moret says policy reforms implemented by Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Louisiana Legislature over the last few years have resulted in the state now having the strongest pipeline of mega projects in its history. “Collectively, these projects could produce more than 9,000 direct jobs and 16,500 indirect jobs, for a total potential job impact of roughly 25,500 new jobs in Louisiana. The companies involved are considering sites in virtually every region of Louisiana, including Lafayette, Shreveport/Bossier, Monroe, Alexandria, Southwest Louisiana, Baton Rouge and the New Orleans area,” he says.
Although the state will not land all of these projects, LED estimates that it’s very likely Louisiana could win as many as half of them. “My best forecast today is that we would secure roughly five to seven of those projects that would generate about 10,000-15,000 new jobs (including direct and indirect jobs), assuming the mega fund dollars are restored," Moret says.
"Seven of these projects would represent huge expansions of existing Louisiana manufacturing facilities or corporate headquarters, and the remainder would represent huge new corporate investments in Louisiana,” he adds.
The heads of Louisiana’s eight regional economic development organizations have joined Moret in fighting the cuts. In a May 23 letter to the Legislature, those economic development chiefs wrote:
Raiding the Mega-Fund is a declaration of war on job creation in Louisiana. Should this action stand, voters will see it as the most harmful anti-jobs action of the Legislature in this century. Today, the top concern shared by all Louisiana voters is jobs. Louisiana has suffered from slower job growth than the rest of the South over the last decade. Louisiana simply cannot afford to take an anti-jobs stance.
Left in its current posture, this budget action poisons Louisiana’s new reputation as a great place to do business. As LED has stated, these dollars have been pledged in good faith as part of recruitment incentives to locate in our state. Flip-flopping on the state’s pre-existing commitment to the Mega-Fund sends a damaging message to site-selection professionals that Louisiana cannot be trusted in project negotiations.
They also note that the LED budget was further cut by an additional $3 million and that LED has already taken a deep share of agency cuts in the past few years.
Moret maintains that additional HB1 amendments to LED’s budget would result in a significant reduction in funding for small business development centers, business retention programs, regional economic development organizations, international trade promotion, and workforce training, as well as the marketing of Louisiana for new business investment.
Even if the decision is reversed, Moret maintains damage has been done. "Louisiana’s competitive position already has been weakened for all of our current prospects because the committee vote [and subsequent House approval of the budget] calls into question the Legislature’s commitment to the existing funding for the Mega-Project Development Fund," Moret says. "Additionally, the proposed cut would eliminate any possibility of securing the future of the GM-Shreveport facility as an automotive assembly facility.”
HB1, the $25 billion state operating budget, was passed by the House late Thursday night, and the budget bill now goes to Senate Finance Committee. Moret is expected to testify Monday (the committee is planning to hear testimony on Memorial Day).
Read The News Star’s compelling case for why the cuts would hurt the state and kill the Next Autoworks project (formerly V-Vehicle) in Monroe here.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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The only way government "creates" jobs is to take money from one person and give it to another. It looks good but the guy whose pocket is picked is now poorer. Some much for progress.