No WhiteWash!

Team Madison County, a regional economic development initiative led by the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce, the Jackson Energy Authority, the city of Jackson, Madison County and the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development lands over 400 new jobs in West Tennessee.

If report cards were assigned to industry recruitment efforts, Jackson’s Team Madison County would receive an A+, along with the notation “works well with others.” Working together is what Team Madison County is all about. Team Approach Draws Businesses to Madison County

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber today congratulated the board of directors and senior leadership of Carlisle Companies of Charlotte, North Carolina on the company’s decision to locate a new manufacturing facility in Jackson, Tenn. The facility will be operated by Carlisle Tire and Wheel, a subsidiary of Carlisle Companies and will manufacture tires, inner tubes and wheels for a variety of vehicles used in the agricultural, all-terrain vehicle, golf, industrial, lawn/garden and trailer markets. The project represents a multi-million dollar investment by Carlisle Tire and Wheel and is expected to create approximately 440 new jobs. The acquisition of the new facility is subject to confirmatory due diligence and is expected to close in late September.

“The people of Tennessee are very grateful to Carlisle Tire and Wheel for the company’s investment in the Jackson community and their confidence in the workers of West Tennessee,” said Commissioner Kisber. “The close collaboration between the state of Tennessee and Team Madison County is yielding results and I’m convinced we’ll continue to see additional investment in the region.”
Continue reading “Multi-Million Dollar Capital Investment to Create Over 400 New Jobs in West TN” »

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the U.S. economy has shed 7.2 million jobs according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The U.S. unemployment rate has more than doubled since June 2007, from 4.6 to 9.5 percent. But what’s also clear is that the economic pain from the downturn is spread unequally. Unemployment among blue-collar manufacturing workers has risen from 6.0 to 15.2 percent, while the rate for professional, technical and creative workers is less then 5 percent.

The graph below tracks the unemployment rate for three broad groups or classes of employment – the working class, the service class, and the creative class from 1971 to May 2009. We define these classes as follows:

• Working class. Occupations that depend highly on physical skills and repetitive tasks. (e.g., construction trades, mechanics, crane operators, assembly line workers).
• Service class. Low autonomy occupations in the service sector (e.g., food service workers, janitors, grounds keepers, secretaries, clerks)
• Creative class. High autonomy occupations where workers are paid to think (e.g., artists, doctors, nurses, senior managers, architects).

Read more via Unemployment on the rise

10 companies awarded grants, training 1365 employees:

NASHVILLE – Governor Phil Bredesen and Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development Commissioner James Neeley have recently awarded $926,508 in recovery training grants to 10 companies across the state. These grants, which are funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, will provide training to 1365 employees.

“Recovery Act training focuses on core skill improvements such as leadership, product technical training, computer skills, and new equipment training,” said Bredesen. “These training grants help the employer strengthen their position, which we hope will minimize the impact on employees until the economy improves.”

The maximum grant amount a for-profit company can receive is $100,000 with a required 25 percent minimum match. The program began on April 1, 2009, and will run though June 30, 2010. This is not a pilot program and will not be renewed after the Recovery Act funding has been expended.

The Tennessee Economic Recovery Training Grant is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and administered by the Workforce Development division within the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the Local Workforce Investment Area, and the local Career Center.

Below is a list of the 10 companies awarded recovery training grants.

More fallout from a still deteriorating housing market

Soaring U.S. unemployment and a shrinking economy drove delinquencies on credit card debt to an all-time high in the first quarter as a record number of cash-strapped consumers fell behind on their bills.

Read more via Credit card delinquencies at record high – Consumer news- msnbc.com.

It was announced on July 6, 2009 that Apple Computer will build a $1 billion data center in Maiden, NC. North Carolina had recently changed its tax law to lure Apple and guided Apple in its site selection areas.

Maiden’s population is around 3,439 and is located in Catawba County, NC and is south of Hickory, NC and is in the Hickory-Lenoir MSA area.

What is amazing about this deal is that the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation went after the data center business.  They marketed the area as a data center area and even had their own website promoting their data center sites. www.datacentersites.com.  They were able to provide the details that a data center would need and offered many locations.

Lenoir, NC, was able get a $600 million Google data center that opened last year that will employ over 200 people.

The area was once known for furniture making, an industry that has taken a hit because of low-wage competition from overseas.  I am very familiar with the Lenoir-Hickory area and have seen the reduction in furniture making and the effect that it had on the local economy.  I have seen the major impact that it had on retail stores as they closed their doors.  Now I see a renewed retail environment with new retail stores opening up.  See link, Google, Lenoir try to adapt to one another

In June, 2009, Ethan Allen, a furniture maker announced that it would add 302 new jobs to its existing 540 employees that it has in Maiden, NC.

Both Apple and Google will pay much higher wages and this should have a impact on the local economy and the house price appreciation rank for Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC is 35 in the nation while Kingsport MSA area is 44.

I might add that Apple and Google did not wait for a Higher Education Center to be built and local people have gone back to school on their own to get the education in hopes to land a job at Google or Apple.

This is great news for North Carolina, but what have our Tennessee elected officials done to spur economic development in East Tennessee? North Carolina and Virginia are both going after the data center business and have incentives to attract data center projects.

MAIDEN – Weeks of speculation ended Monday as Apple Inc. announced plans to build its new $1 billion East Coast data center here.

The California-based technology giant will build the 500,000-square-foot facility at the 183-acre WestStar Mission Critical Business Park off Startown Road near its intersection with U.S. 321.

The data center will employ at least 50 people in full-time information technology positions.

Mike Foulkes, Apple’s director of state and local government affairs, said the company will fill those positions with local people if possible.

Gov. Beverly Perdue’s office has estimated the data center could generate another 250 jobs for people providing services to the plant and more than 3,000 related jobs for the region surrounding the site.

Grading on the project could begin in August, with construction completed and the first employees hired in late 2010.

Read more via Apple to build $1 billion data center in Maiden.

North Carolina and Virginia have made it easier for high-tech firms to locate in their states.  It appears that the economy is not slowing down the building of new datacenters.

What has Tennessee elected officials done to get the data center business?

State was competing with Virginia

RALEIGH – The General Assembly changed its corporate-tax law to favor Apple Inc. after fears that the technology giant would take its $1 billion data center to Virginia, state documents released yesterday show.

Agency e-mails indicate that the courtship with Apple was under way by last September. Legislators decided late last month to change the way that North Carolina would calculate Apple’s corporate tax bill, saving the company about $46 million on its state taxes over the next 10 years.

Read more via Tax law changed to lure Apple.

Unemployment rate rises to a 26-year high as job losses speed up

Employers cut a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June, driving the unemployment rate up to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent, suggesting that the economy’s road to recovery will be bumpy.

Read more via Jobless rate rises to 9.5 percent – Stocks & economy- msnbc.com.

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen recently visited Switzerland, Germany and Poland, where he said he was working to attract investments for a West Tennessee megasite near Brownsville, TN.

It is amazing that a little city and county had the foresight to build a megasite and also was able to get the governor as their top salesman to pitch for them.  It appears that that the only thing that Sullivan County can get the governor to do is to plant flowers at the I-81 rest stop in Bristol, TN.

What are our local elected officials in North East Tennessee doing to bring jobs to Sullivan County, TN?  Maybe our local state elected officials should have spent less time trying to pass all of those gun bills and instead doing things to help the economy.

It is clear to me that the economic development efforts in Kingsport/Sullivan County is not working.  Its time for change and a new game plan.

Haywood County site certified as a Megasite

Brownsville, TN – Haywood County announced in July that a 1,700+-acre site in the county has been certified by McCallum Sweeney Consulting (MSC) of Greenville, S.C., as a “megasite,” or large industrial property suitable for a major automotive manufacturing facility or related industry.

The Haywood County site, known as the I-40 Advantage Auto Park, is located north of Interstate 40, 20 minutes east of the Memphis, Tennessee, suburbs. The site is easily accessible from Memphis, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Jackson and other West Tennessee cities. The site is bounded on the north by U. S. Highway 70/79 and CSX Railroad and on the south by Interstate 40.

“Haywood County thanks the landowners and the many local, state and regional entities that have been part of our community’s diligent work for almost three years as we have strived toward this milestone goal of MSC megasite certification,” said Haywood County Mayor Franklin Smith. “The reality of this certification is that it will increase our potential to attract an industry with high-paying jobs to benefit current citizens and future generations.”

Based on its expertise as a site selection consultant for the automotive industry, MSC was commissioned by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as an independent source to evaluate community submitted sites in TVA’s service area. MSC established stringent certification criteria and a detailed process to evaluate potential properties.

“Today’s companies, especially in the automotive industry, are under enormous pressures to make better site selection decisions,” said MSC Senior Principal Ed McCallum. “The certification of the I-40 Advantage Auto Park site in Haywood County is a great addition to the region’s catalog of sites that are ready to meet the stringent demands of an automotive assembly plant.”

The I-40 Advantage Auto Park site meets the MSC criteria required for certification, including land availability that has sufficient contiguous and developable acres, infrastructure, utilities, and labor capacity.

Brownsville, Haywood County is a Tennessee Three Star Community where industry, business, agriculture, education, and government work in harmony.

General Statistics for Brownsville-Haywood County

City/County Taxes
There is no state tax on real estate property in Tennessee. The following property tax rates per $100 of assessed value prevail in Brownsville-Haywood County:

City General Fund: $1.50

County General Fund: $2.39

Total – $3.89

Population

2000 Census – 19,797

2007 Projection – 22,500

Housing

Median Property Value – $85,000

Average Rent (House) – $500

Average Rent (Apartment) – $450

Households

2005 Estimate – 7,500

Cost of Living (Based on the U. S. Average – 100 percent)

Groceries – 97.1

Utilities – 87.4

Healthcare – 90.1

Housing – 96.1

Misc. – 98.1

Composite – 96.6

Sales Tax

State – 7.75%

Local – 2.00%

Total – 9.75%

I wonder if there are any elected officials in North East Tennessee communicating with Nashville about economic development for the local area?

Tennessee to Build on Success in Healthcare, Investment

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen and Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber today announced plans to attend the 2009 SEUS/Japan Annual Meeting in Tokyo October 17-19, followed by a nine day trade mission to China. During his trip, Governor Bredesen will meet with Japanese companies currently invested in Tennessee and will hold talks in the Chinese cities of Beijing, Xian, Hangzhou and Hong Kong. The visit comes following action by the Tennessee General Assembly to approve House Joint Resolution 191 calling for closer economic, educational and cultural ties between Tennessee and Hubei province, home to the famous Three Gorges Dam and provincial capital, Hangzhou.

“Last year, we launched a very successful beginning to the economic and cultural relationship between China and Tennessee by opening the Tennessee-China Development Center in Beijing,” said Governor Bredesen. “Despite the global economic slowdown, Tennessee’s trade relationship with China continues to grow and we see real potential for that trade relationship to increase its momentum.”

In 2008, Chinese customers purchased $1.3 billion dollars worth of goods and services from Tennessee companies, making China the state’s third largest trading partner behind Canada and Mexico. Japan is Tennessee’s fourth largest trading partner, purchasing $1.07 billion dollars in Tennessee goods and services.

“We continue to have strong interest in Tennessee from China,” said Commissioner Kisber. “As the Chinese economy, especially its consumer markets, continues to expand, we want Tennessee companies to benefit and our mission is designed to raise awareness of Tennessee products.”

One of China’s primary interests is Tennessee’s expertise in the delivery of health care and in health-related products and training. In October 2008, Commissioner Kisber signed a memorandum of understanding along with Dr. Zhu Baoduo of the Chinese Foreign Loan Office to establish regular exchanges of health care professionals focused on discussing ideas around rural health care delivery. The inaugural China-Tennessee Rural Health Exchange began in May 2008 when 43 Chinese health experts visited the University of Memphis, East Tennessee State University and the Vanderbilt Institute for Better Health.

On June 8, 2009, experts from the three Tennessee universities travelled to Xian to participate in a conference on rural health with more than 100 Chinese medical professionals as a follow-up to last year’s exchange. The exchange is funded through a grant from the World Bank and the British Department for International Development.

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development has begun accepting applications for participation in the trade mission. The Japanese portion of the trade mission will be October 18 and 19 in Tokyo and is being managed by the Japan-America Society of Tennessee and the Chinese portion of the trade mission will run October 21 through October 29 and is being managed by ECD. The mission delegation is expected to be limited to approximately 40-50 participants with a participation fee of $5,000 per delegate ($1,500 for spouses). That fee includes participation in all trade mission events and domestic flights, but does not include international travel and hotels. Representatives of companies and communities interested in participating in the trade mission can learn more and apply online at www.tnecd.gov

Questions about the trade mission can be sent to chinatrademission09@tn.gov.

Read more via Governor Bredesen, Commissioner Kisber to Lead Trade Mission | TN.gov Newsroom.

The unemployment rate for June is likely to go to 9.6% or higher according to most analyst estimates. There are anecdotes from all over the country that businesses which have cut people are prepared to get along without replacing them until it is crystal clear that the economy is in a full-blown recovery. That could easily be another twelve to eighteen months away, which means that some industries will continue to cut jobs and others are prepared to work with skeleton staffs rather than raise expenses.

Read more via With Unemployment Moving To 9.6%, Economic Impact Of Jobs Is Just Beginning – 24/7 Wall Street.