Arkansas Blog

Arkansas We will be sold out and work for less. Always. At least we are kind enough to sell our NW AR Gas tax free.. Allow more chicken shit daily in our waterways.. Allow dangerous Agro-chemicals and fertilizers to kill everything in their path downstream...ending in a massive dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. And we will probably be one of the only States to allow another coal plant at a time where almost everyone else is reversing their decisions to pollute on their citizens and soil..while adding to global warming in one of the most harmful ways.

All of this for a majority of labor pay well below (in todays dollars) the equivalent of 1970's minimum wage pay rates.

Yes, I agree with ES and share their angst. Does that report say where all those blades are being sold? Betcha there aren't too many clients in Arkansas. And, as far as proponents spouting promises of increasing wind power technology in Arkansas - well, do some homework. Check out any of the wind power maps available online from the DOE and other sources. Although I would personally put up a wind turbine in my own yard if I could afford one, wind power is not the most cost effective green energy choice here in our fair state.

I am really sick of the economic development camp spouting their lies to our citizens.

ARMediaReformer is referring to this map:

http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/images/windmaps/ar_50m_800.jpg

What it says is - don't bother in Arkansas.

But, beyond that, did anybody really expect that an international company, who could choose manufacturing plants among any of the slave wage states in the world, would grace lil' ol' Arkansas with high paying, good benefit jobs?

Those days are over, you're either dirt poor or filthy rich employing the dirt poor.

"..$20 million in direct payments plus a 25-year income tax emption to land jobs that pay below the state's current average manufacturing wage."'

Do we see a bond that says the blade company will maintain full operations for 25 years?

Of course not. It's too damn bad we get political leaders who flunked general business 101.
They also seemed to have graduated from Tysons contract chicken growers school. What ever da boss company wants to dole out is good enough for me. In fact, they are making Arkansas a big contract growers state. No more minimum wages, labor standards, safety standards, just take whatever the boss man is willing to dole out. That's the new Arkansas, a contract growers state.
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Looks like they'll be getting a free ride for quite a while. No income taxes, and since all of their stuff will likely go to out of state buyers, no sales tax either. Just what can the economic development folks show for their efforts besides a reliable source of toxic chemical residue for the Natural State to find a suitable disposal site?

As one of the "economic development camp spouting their lies" I feel compelled to respond. First, a number of things in the article are less than completely factual. The state income tax credit program will only forgive a maximum of 50% of a person's tax liability for any given year, not hte complete amount of income tax. The program is set up so that the tax credits can be earned in a 5 to 10 year period and then spent in a period that lasts up to 20 years. The credit is directly tied to payroll created, so no payroll, no tax credit. Lower payroll, lower tax credit, etc. Of course the company is getting a 50% tax credit, but that is far from no income tax for 25 years.

Second, the $670+ average weekly wage for manufacturing includes plant managers and corporate salaries not just the hourly wage earner. This article states that the figure given does not include the coporate office personnel who typically earn higher wages than the hourly workers. I'm not debating the merits of that system, just pointing out that the $670+ figure for the whole state's average manufacturing wage has many of those corporate salaries included. If we are going to compare, then we need to compare apples to apples or we need to compare the state wide average weekly wage of only the hourly workers which would be much nearer this one I imagine.

Third, if we aren't going to compare apples to apples then let's compare the average weekly salary of retail and manufacturing. Retail average weekly wage in the first quarter of this year was $430 a week. And honestly, if manufacturing like this does not come to the state then a lot of people will be working retail. So, does taking people out of the $430 a week jobs and putting them to work in $600 a week jobs raise the income levels of the state?

Fourth, since everyone is so against the recruitment of industries with incentives, what is a realistic alternative for the 1,000 people who will be working at this company? Are manufacturing jobs going to just materialize out of the air? Should we encourage them to move to other states that have manufacturing? Arkansas has lagged behind most states in manufacturing growth the last two decades, partically because most other states have strong recruitment programs. If the incentives given to recruit this company were considered too "high," then I have a strongly suspect that most of you would consider the incentives needed to get a $25 - $30 an hour manufacturer too high as well.

Being in economic development I actually hate the incentive game. However, it is the only way to compete for those jobs with other states. I hate it morewhen our commmunities and our state fail to succeed because the people who live in our communities don't have anywhere to work. Most of the people I know working in economic development deeply love their commmunity and the state. We want to be a place for people to work, live, play and raise a family. And the first step in that process is having a job. The highest paying jobs in the state are in information technology and then secondly, in manufacturing. That is why those are the targets of economic developers.

Maybe we should just turn Arkansas into one big outlet mall for Tennessee and Texas and let our folks make $8 - $9 an hour as they ask people if they would like the shirt in orange or burnt orange, but some of us fail to concede that point.

I realize I'm on my soap box and that the trashing will proceed as soon as I post. However, in the two years I've been reading this blog I have yet to see one economic development or development project that has been approved of by most of the responders. Just thought that maybe I'd provide some of "the other side" of the story that is rarely on this site.