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Yeah, but its still Alabama...kind of like that joke about Winston Churchill:
"When accused by a woman MP of being 'disgustingly drunk' the Conservative Prime Minister responded: 'My dear, you are ugly, and what’s more, you are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be disgustingly ugly."
Just watched the announcement ceremony. No mention of incentives, of course, but this article says:
"Altogether, the value of the state's package totaled up to $379.9 million. That doesn't include any local incentives that are part of the deal, including any related to the tax-increment financing district Huntsville is creating at the site of the project."
Funny thing is that when Volvo was looking to build their new plant, they didn't seem to have an issue with NC's supply chain logistics. It was the incentives (or lack of). To Pat McCrory's credit, he tried to get the General Assembly to loosen the purse strings to lure Volvo, but they refused and practically gift-wrapped Volvo for South Carolina.
I'm willing to bet that incentives were a MUCH bigger factor. Alabama may indeed have superior logistics, but I find it hard to believe that NC's logistics is as p*ss poor as it's made out to be. Poor logistics should've knocked NC out of contention immediately.
I can't wait to hear Berger give his statement on this...
He'll say something like this:
"But other leaders were confident that North Carolina's history of refusing to offer the biggest tax breaks to lure multinational companies is the right choice.
Republican state Rep. Jeff Collins (R-Nash) represents an area around near of the four massive tracts of vacant land assembled to offer huge employers like the Toyota/Mazda plant. He says the state's fiscal conservatism has encouraged substantial hiring by small- and medium-sized businesses that will never make headlines, but generate most employment."
Because you think I am emotionally invested whether the area got the jobs or not. I don’t. I do care about the real impacts that effects the entire state hence I read this thread.
My comment “But it’s located between Raleigh & Charlotte” was just a light hearted reference to how I think some people’s reasoning that the Triad is attractive to recruit business because it’s located between CLT & RDU is not a winning strategy. Someone already referenced the airport name as a reason. Jokingly, obviously like mine.
I already posted a boring reply on why I think NC didn’t get it
"But other leaders were confident that North Carolina's history of refusing to offer the biggest tax breaks to lure multinational companies is the right choice.
Republican state Rep. Jeff Collins (R-Nash) represents an area around near of the four massive tracts of vacant land assembled to offer huge employers like the Toyota/Mazda plant. He says the state's fiscal conservatism has encouraged substantial hiring by small- and medium-sized businesses that will never make headlines, but generate most employment."
I just stumbled across an interesting article. NC Commerce secretary Tony Copeland also says that the supply chain is what drove Toyota/Mazda to Alabama and that NC offered $1.5B worth of incentives.
North Carolina offered incentives worth "in excess of $1.5 billion" to land the Toyota-Mazda automotive plant, Secretary of Commerce Tony Copeland told Triangle Business Journal on Wednesday.
The automotive companies announced Wednesday they would put the plant in Alabama instead. It will mark the fourth automotive plant in Alabama, while North Carolina remains the only Southeastern state without one.
Alabama's state incentives package totaled $379.9 million, excluding local contributions, the Birmingham Business Journal reports. It was previously speculated that the company would seek up to $1 billion in incentives from Alabama, according to BBJ.
Copeland said the fact that Alabama has a built-in supply chain played a major role in the decision to go to Alabama instead of a 1,900-acre site in Randolph County.
"The one hurdle that's been a constant, something we've had to deal with, was regarding the supply chain," Copeland said. "We knew this all along."
Alabama, by comparison, already has three auto plants scattered across the state and other auto plants are in nearby states as well. That creates a "corridor," as Copeland put it, of companies serving that specific industry. At the end of the day, he said, that sort of accessibility "outweighed us getting it."
In the automobile industry, he said, "the biggest cost is logistics."
The $1.6 billion plant is expected to create 4,000 jobs averaging around $50,000 per year. In announcing the win, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said, "This is indeed a great day in Alabama."
Copeland said North Carolina checked other key boxes, such as a trainable workforce and requirements for the site. And he praised a collaborative effort to land the plant that included Gov. Roy Cooper, Senate leader Phil Berger, House Speaker Tim Moore, local officials in Randolph and Guilford counties and others, including the North Carolina Railroad and the Bryan Foundation, which helped with land acquisition.
He said the ultimate bid was a mix of tax breaks from the state, cash from the state, training provided by the state and other contributions.
"It was the largest package put forth in North Carolina in my memory," Copeland said.
Despite the setback, Copeland didn't rule out pursuing another automotive plant, in part because the state has worked collaboratively to have a plan. But, he added, "I would not preclude looking at other things."
Perhaps the supply chain really is worse than we thought?
I just stumbled across an interesting article. NC Commerce secretary Tony Copeland also says that the supply chain is what drove Toyota/Mazda to Alabama and that NC offered $1.5B worth of incentives.
Perhaps the supply chain really is worse than we thought?
Maybe. I find that number very hard to believe. Toyota/Mazda would have gotten a lot more from Alabama if thats a true number. And if the issue really is supply chain, and we put up $1.5 billion and failed, then there's little to no hope for NC landing an automotive plant in the future.
Maybe. I find that number very hard to believe. Toyota/Mazda would have gotten a lot more from Alabama if thats a true number. And if the issue really is supply chain, and we put up $1.5 billion and failed, then there's little to no hope for NC landing an automotive plant in the future.
What gets me is that you'd think that if there really was a supply chain issue, T/M would've crossed NC off the list long by now. Hell, look how fast they eliminated Memphis, Indiana, and who knows where else. The whole thing just doesn't make sense to me. Then again, I obviously wasn't involved the meetings, so who am I to dispute the horse's mouth?
Either way, I think you're right. NC apparently has zero chance of getting an auto plant, whether it's due to incentives, supply chain, or both. Time to focus on something else, I suppose.
Last edited by LM117; 01-10-2018 at 05:30 PM..
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