Cooperation, education still key to development

Published 6:00 am Monday, March 5, 2007

The announcement last week that Toyota has chosen northMississippi as its site for the automaker’s newest production plantcomes with great news to our neighbors in the northern part of thestate. The jobs the plant will produce will percolate throughoutthe Tupelo area and help reinvigorate a region that has beenstruggling in recent years.

The announcement means some $329 million in state incentives andlocal bonding authorization for the counties involved. Thatinvestment is promised to produce some 4,000 jobs. Legislators weremeeting Friday to pass the appropriate legislation that would allowthe incentive packages for the Japanese automobilemanufacturer.

The fact that Toyota chose the Wellspring site is a testament tosomething we have advocated for years – regional economicdevelopment.

Subscribe to our free email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

The site for the SUV plant is a joint project of Pontotoc, Unionand Lee counties. Called the PUL Alliance, the three countiesworked together to put together a 2,500-acre tract, which theymarketed as a super Industrial site.

Here in Southwest Mississippi we have a similar alliance calledthe Southwest Mississippi Partnership. It is a 10-county jointeffort to promote our area of the state.

While we do not have the work force base in SouthwestMississippi to compete for the likes of a facility the size of theToyota plant, we can compete very well for smaller facilities,which can provide similar quality jobs.

Unfortunately for our alliance, we do not have a jointindustrial park. Instead we have individual industrial parks ineach of the communities, with Brookhaven, McComb and Natchez havingthe largest in the 10 counties.

An effort several years ago to build a joint park nevermaterialized and each county has its own similar to the onecurrently being developed here in Brookhaven.

This area was disappointed when the promises of the supplierplants for Nissan’s Canton plant never occurred. For whateverreason, none of the Nissan supplier plants located south of I-20and our area was left out of the mix.

And while we, too, will miss out on the economic benefits of theToyota plant – although our tax dollars will help to fund theincentive package – the issue to focus is what was accomplished bythe joint efforts by the PUL Alliance.

The willingness of the political and business leaders to setaside community differences and work together as one was a keyingredient for the decision by Toyota. As always a second keyingredient – the quality education in the area – is something theTupelo area has focused on for years.

Nothing new here – just a reminder on how important bothingredients are if we are to successfully promote our area toprospective industries and find new and better jobs for ourcitizens.

Write to Bill Jacobs at P.O. Box 551, Brookhaven MS 39602,or send e-mail to bjacobs@dailyleader.com.