Arkansas Blog: Toyota talk --

Gov. Mike Beebe at a news conference this afternoon said Arkansas was in the hunt until not much more than a day before Toyota's decision that it would put a new assembly plant in Tupelo, Miss., instead of Marion, Ark. He said the clincher was Toyota's concern about air quality standards in Arkansas and the potential impact of a pending federal court case on the standards. Arkansas has worked hard on that issue, but has little control over the major source of pollution -- Memphis, truck traffic, prevailing air patterns.

(NOTE: Read on for the Elvis connection.)

Beebe also said Toyota didn't seem to place high emphasis on special state incentives, though Arkansas offered some $200 million in incentives and site improvements.

Warwick is coming with video. [UPDATE: Video posted at the Arkansas Times video blog.]

UPDATE: Roby Brock at Talk Business quotes a Toyota exec as saying the environment wasn't the issue in Arkansas. So, what was? A list of things.

Mark it down. Fair or foul, somebody is going to blame the loss of the Toyota plant on the Beebe administration's change of leadership at AEDC. That Toyota wanted to continue working with the leaders they'd been working with.

UPDATE 2: Roby Brock called to say he just got off the phone with Dennis Cuneo, the site selection consultant for Toyota. Cuneo confirmed that Marion was rejected because of environmental issues -- specifically the lawsuit Beebe cited. The EPA has the Marion site on "non-attainment" status, and apparently the EPA is about to put the Chattanooga site on "non-attainment" status as well. The only site without such a problem is Tupelo, which is why Toyota is putting its plant there.

UPDATE 3: Here's a link to the U.S. court of appeals ruling in late December that Beebe mentioned.

UPDATE 4: Ernie Dumas, in an editorial written for The Leader in North Pulaski, posits a reason why Tupelo got the nod. We don't think Garrick Feldman will mind if we can't wait until there's a link to his website to share it. Check it out on the jump. Answer to the Toyota riddle? Elvis. Read it, please. Dumas waxes lyrical.

EDITORIAL FOR THIS WEEK'S LEADER

Another automotive suitor, the relentlessly fickle Toyota Motor Corp., has spurned Arkansas and its generous dowry of tax breaks, subsidies and cheap labor. Two years ago, Toyota led Arkansas up to the altar and then fled to Toronto, Canada, where it established its seventh North American assembly plant. Yesterday, it announced that its eighth would be not at Marion, Ark., the perennial site that everyone knew would finally be the bride, but Tupelo, Miss. Two thousand people in northeastern Mississippi will get the jobs.
Tupelo, Miss.! It had not even been in the running. The sites had been narrowed to Marion and a town in western Tennessee. Toyota and the experts had all praised the Arkansas site, on land as flat a patio where east-west and north-south Interstates crossed and on the fringes of the big Memphis labor market.
What happened?, everyone will now ask. What does Tupelo have that east Arkansas doesn’t? We have cheap labor, weak unions, low taxes, eager and honest workers, and Arkansas voters amended the Constitution two years ago so that we can sink our state government deeply into debt to pay for whatever additional infrastructure a giant automaker might want. Toyota is now the world’s largest automaker, but we would have paid for the training. And Gov. Beebe is getting a $50 million tax fund to close a deal with a restive manufacturer.
Sure, Tupelo is not far away from another Toyota plant, an engine factory at Huntsville, Ala., but that offers only marginal advantages.
We have a hunch about what happened. The Japanese are supposed to value cultural accoutrements. Tupelo is famous in some quarters as one of the smallest cities (34,000) in the country with its own symphony orchestra and it has a big museum of antique automobiles, which is worth going to see. But that is not it either.
Tupelo is the birthplace of Elvis. And that isn’t all. Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote a song about Tupelo called “Porch Swing in Tupelo.” Everyone knows Van Morrison’s song “Tupelo Honey.” John Lee Hooker recorded a blues song about a fictional flood titled “Tupelo” although the town has never been flooded. Jerry Reed, who is famous for his role in “Smokey and the Bandits,” recorded a song called “Tupelo Mississippi Flash.” Mark Knopflier’s album “Shangri-La” features a song called “Back to Tupelo.”
Finally, there’s the closing stanza of EmmyLou Harris’ song “Boy from Tupelo”:
“You don’t love me, this I know/
Don’t need a Bible to tell me so/
It’s a shame and it’s a sin/
Everything I coulda been to you/
Your last chance Texaco,/
Your sweetheart of the rodeo,/
A Juliet to your Romeo,/
The border you cross into Mexico/
I’ll never understand why or how/
Oh, but baby it’s too late now/
Just ask the boy from Tupelo/
He’s the king and he oughta know.”
In Tokyo, they have never heard a song about Marion, Arkansas If we’re going to land jobs, we’ve got to get to work.

Comments

Maybe the AG should sue Memphis to clean up the air. In the meantime make them make payments to Eastern Arkansas for lost revenue and jobs for it's citizens. If they refuse then shut down the bridges until they see the light.

Posted by: saywhat | February 27, 2007 02:55 PM

It's not Memphis. It's those dang truck drivers that sit at all those West Memphis truck stops and keep their trucks running all night.

Posted by: R.D. Proctor | February 27, 2007 03:13 PM

Let's see. Arkansas dumps some amount of chickenshit in the creeks in NW Arkansas that eventually flows into OK and we get sued by OK for damaging thier streams and environment. Who with AR is prepping the lawsuit against TN for damaging our environment and lost jobs in Marion with their air pollution?

Posted by: SamNLR | February 27, 2007 03:28 PM

I think it's the dog track at W. Memphis that is responsible for the pollutants.

Posted by: Cato | February 27, 2007 03:34 PM

Bullhockey folks,

If you believe Beebe's declaration about the stink in the air blowing from Memphis, you'll also believe that Mike Huckabee is going to be Hillary's running mate.
The Toyota folks have known about the dirty air in Memphis since 2001, and didn't pull out it the last minute for "environmental reasons."
I suggest that you folks at the Arkansas Times and you blog soothsayers start asking better and different questions about this last-minute about-face.
We had it. Then we lost it. And both our old Gubna and new Gubna the reason this one got away had nothing to do with no stinking smoke plume.
Somebody ought to start asking why we let those damn Mississippians swoop in and woo those Japan kingpins and their everlast cars away from our highly-touted StarBright site in Marion.

Posted by: professoremeritus | February 27, 2007 03:59 PM

IT'S THE CROP DUSTERS. spray spray spray!

Posted by: Anonymous | February 27, 2007 04:01 PM

Won't it be more convienent for all of those auto workers to drive to Tunica from a Tupelo location than all the way from Marion -- they will miss the distractions at West Memphis.

Posted by: A_Weevil | February 27, 2007 04:09 PM

"And both our old Gubna and new Gubna the reason this one got away had nothing to do with no stinking smoke plume."

Huh? Perhaps you had better finish what you have obiviously obligated yo sef
to,

Posted by: Lwood | February 27, 2007 04:14 PM

I find it diffuclt to believe east or north east winds from memphis are the true culprit here....

Posted by: Eureka Springs, AR | February 27, 2007 04:19 PM

It's time to boycott Toyota.

Posted by: Severus | February 27, 2007 04:22 PM

That blows. For whatever the reason. I just wonder what kind of academic achievement occurs when kids can see a clear benefit in it for them...as in a job waiting. Even if it's a job in a car plant. Ya know all this NCLB? It's a smokescreen to blame educators for low performing kids when the real culprit could be lack of economic opportunity. Granted, it's a hand in hand enterprise. Industry wants good schools and so on but just imagine the turn around in these Delta kids once and for all if they saw a $ light at the end of the tunnel based on getting through school first. It's a pity that this opportunity is lost. We need some jobs over here and pronto.

Posted by: publicschoolsrus | February 27, 2007 04:56 PM

fair or foul, the fact is that no matter what Beebe or Toyota says in public, nobody was going to beat out Haley Barbour for a deal as big as this one.

Posted by: muleboy303 | February 27, 2007 04:56 PM

In light of the continuing Memphis pollution problem, we should give up on putting a big employer in Marion. We've wasted a lot of time and money on that over the years with little to show.

Posted by: Spirit | February 27, 2007 05:02 PM

SamNLR took the words out of my mouth, so now I have to fake some new ones.

I'd think since Haley Barbour is Bush's gay lover, that probably has a lot to do with this decision. But also these businesses might have swayed the decision because I couldn't Google up such stuff going on in Marion.

A aA Escort Service
662-841-9927
Tupelo MS

Best Choice
662-841-0182
Tupelo MS
More Results For: Escort Service

I know zelda's going to throw a fit, but even Japanese men do not live by bread alone. Hell they are the inventors of the happy ending.

Posted by: Deathbyinches | February 27, 2007 05:18 PM

Get Tom DeLay on this side of the river and you will see results. There's Toyota, Nissan and the steel mill. All feathers in his hat......much like the huge government contracts for the naval yards in Miss.

Posted by: Cato | February 27, 2007 05:35 PM

Great column from Ernie...

I needed to smile...

Posted by: rosso | February 27, 2007 09:40 PM

Well, Ernie, those are certainly good songs, but they can't top "Marian, the Librarian." I know it's "a" rather than "o", but I'm certain the inscrutable Japanese don't know the difference.

Posted by: Carrick Patterson | February 27, 2007 09:52 PM

Of course, Ernie is right! The Japanese love them some Elvis.

I'll even place a little blame on dubya. Remember when he went to Graceland with Koizumi?

____________________

PRIME MINISTER KOIZUMI: It's like a dream. I never expected President come with me to visit Graceland. There's Elvis song: To Dream Impossible. (Singing Elvis song.) (Laughter.) My dream came true. Thank you very much for -- thank you. Thank you very much for treating me nice, the Elvis song. (Singing Elvis song.) Thank you.

PRESIDENT BUSH: We're going to go have some barbeque, thank you.
_____________________

That Arkansas was home to the internment camps at Rohwer and Jerome probably didn't help the cause, either.

Posted by: hugh mann | February 27, 2007 11:01 PM

hugh mann - now that was funny

Well here it is, your nightly Cheney. or not Cheny not on the record trying to set the spinning record straight...

still flying over bizzaro world
(I think he is on pills, lots and lots of pills)

http://tinyurl.com/2svsgv

Posted by: Eureka Springs, AR | February 28, 2007 01:15 AM

This asshat is scheduled to play at Riverfest.

I wish the whole crowd showed up waving teddy bears over their head.

This canned hunting crap makes me sick.

"Troy Lee killed Cubby!!"

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) -- Troy Lee Gentry, of the country singing duo Montgomery Gentry, has been sentenced to three months of probation and a $15,000 fine for killing a captive black bear. He also must give up hunting in Minnesota for five years.

Gentry pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in November. Under a plea deal, he agreed to forfeit the bear and the bow he used during the hunt near Sandstone. The 600-pound bear has been part of a taxidermy display at Gentry's home in Tennessee. He was sentenced Friday.

The bear was killed in October 2004 at the 80-acre Minnesota Wildlife Connection. Owner Lee Marvin Greenly sold the bear for $4,650 and orchestrated the hunt, which Gentry videotaped and edited to make it appear the bear had been killed in a fair chase hunt, according to authorities.

Posted by: Rev. Mojo Ryson | February 28, 2007 02:22 AM

"...I know zelda's going to throw a fit, but even Japanese men do not live by bread alone. Hell they are the inventors of the happy ending."

Why would I throw a fit about that, DBI? Heck, I think prostitution should be legal.

Posted by: zelda | February 28, 2007 08:53 AM

From the comments I've read, Toyota seems to believe that the workforce in Mississippi is more attuned to the Toyota way of thinking. Although they will never admit, I believe that an element of racism played a significant role in excluding Arkansas. A quick review of the county census data show that Mississippi County is 34% African-American, while Pontotoc County is 15% African-American.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/28/28115.html

ARK. BLOG: An interesting, if explosive, thought. It does recall comments when Canada was chosen for an earlier plant that were critical of educational attainment in some southern U.S. climes. By the way, the Arkansas site is in Crittenden County, wasn't it, not Mississippi? It is just under 50 percent black. Shelby County (Memphis) across the river and likely a major source of labor is also a bit more than 50 percent black, against percentages ranging from 15 to 25 percent in the three-county Mississippi region that worked to lure the Toyota plant. If you're counting.

Posted by: arkansaist | February 28, 2007 09:28 AM

Maybe I'm confused, but I thought zelda said the other night that her hubby and I have sex on the brain.

Only shocking news to the most committed of lesbians in the world, who have never ever dated a male.

A quick Google shows that Toyotas are very rarely ever used in porno movies. Usually much longer wheelbases like those found in Caddies and Lincolns are required for obvious reasons.

The few exceptions I could find involved midget couples "going to town" in a pretty even mixture of Toyotas and Nissons. Oh the wonders of The Google!

Posted by: Deathbyinches | February 28, 2007 10:31 AM

Nah...you're not confused, DBI; I did say that you'd taught me that my hubby's penchant for turning every conversation, regardless of its actual salience, toward 'Rome,' was somewhat normal. So I guess it's only 'natural' that Toyota men would follow the same 'penchant' when deciding where to locate their company's, well, penises. Forgive me, I'm still studying the merits of this lesson...and resisting the homework.

Posted by: zelda | February 28, 2007 11:34 AM

Arkansas Blog

Toyota talk -- - UPDATED

Comments

Post a comment