Industry’s I-55 dividing line

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Democratic lawmakers are grumbling that Mississippi’s biggest economic development victories, such as the electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant announced last week, always wind up in certain parts of the state.

The two areas being ignored, they say, are west of Interstate 55: the Delta and Southwest Mississippi, which happen to be two areas of the state with a higher percentage of black residents.

The lawmakers are correct. The supersized economic development projects in recent years that have received up to hundreds of millions of dollars in state assistance tend to land in Northeast Mississippi and East Mississippi.

There are exceptions, such as the Nissan assembly plant in Canton and the Continental Tire plant in Clinton. But Nissan is right on I-55 and Continental Tire is only a few miles to the west of it. When it comes to state investment to attract industry, the Delta and Southwest Mississippi are getting the short end of the stick.

The Democratic lawmakers blame Republican Gov. Tate Reeves. Conceivably, he or his people at the Mississippi Development Authority could be nudging big projects toward counties that supported Reeves during his two campaigns for governor. But in the 2023 election, Brandon Presley beat Reeves by 224 votes in Marshall County. So there are different issues in play.

One problem may be that the western part of the state has been losing residents. It’s difficult to convince large employers to give these areas a try when their own residents are looking elsewhere.

Then there are the topics we always hear about, usually involving education or health, whenever Mississippi is 49th or 50th in some national ranking.

A third area of concern is the inability or unwillingness of some counties to work together. For a number of years, state developers have told local officials that the best way to get the attention of large industrial projects is to form regional alliances of multiple counties. Delta Council has made progress in getting the 19 counties it serves in the western part of Mississippi to think more collaboratively, but there is still work to be done in that regard.

The Democratic skepticism about the location of the battery project may be misguided but there are some justifiable questions.

For example, the property where the plant will be built is right on the Tennessee line. An amendment would have required 70% of the plant’s jobs go to Mississippi residents, but it got voted down. Is there any other requirement to hire Mississippi residents in the state’s agreement to provide at least $350 million to the development of the factory? If not, why not?

It’s also worth noting that Marshall County apparently amassed enough land on its own to create a 3,600-acre industrial park, where the battery plant will be located. That much land is a huge advantage when chasing large projects.

There is a 2,000-acre industrial park in Tunica, but apparently nothing else of that size in the western part of Mississippi. Those counties should start working, individually or in groups, toward acquiring land for industrial development on the same scale as Marshall County.

Now, here’s one area where Reeves and MDA could help the Delta and Southwest Mississippi. A story by Mississippi Today said the state recently invested $1.1 million in Marshall County’s industrial park in advance of the battery plant announcement.

The story also said MDA also put another $15 million into 12 other industrial parks around the state — but not one of the recipients was in the Delta or Southwest Mississippi.

That’s very easy to fix. A little help from the state would be greatly appreciated.