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Memo from President Duane O'Neill

Special Session for Special Needs

It is no secret that Governor Haley Barbour will soon call a special session of the Mississippi Legislature. Though the State’s budget will be the focal point, our primary concern is on two related issues.  These issues are the Mississippi Adequate Education Fund and Momentum Mississippi.  Your Chamber supports the full funding of MAEF and the passage of the Mississippi Momentum legislation.

Mississippi Momentum legislation is about modernizing our state’s package of economic development incentives, particularly those for existing businesses.  For many years we have been giving incentives to new businesses that come into our state.  However, statistics have long indicated that between seventy-five to eighty percent of all new job creation comes through expansion of existing business. It is obvious that changes need to be made to our incentive package. 

Here is a good example of how the lack of incentives for existing business is negatively impacting our state. A data processing firm with a major operation located in the Metro Jackson area and also in two other states was considering consolidating these operations in our area.  In working with this firm, the Chamber learned that incentives for existing industries in Mississippi are very limited. 

The other states where the firm had operations were very aggressive with generous incentive packages for existing industries. These states made a strong case for the company to downsize here and to consolidate in their areas.  This one opportunity had the potential of adding hundreds of new jobs in our community, or the risk of losing the several hundred jobs already here. Correcting this unequal economic development playing field was not accomplished during the 2005 regular session. It is one of the major goals of the proposed Momentum Mississippi legislation in the upcoming special session.

Fully funding education is an equally important aspect of economic development in any state.  To be able to compete in the global economy, our citizens must have the opportunity to receive an educational opportunity equal to that enjoyed by others across the country. The rest of the world monitors our achievements in education just as closely as it did our tort reform efforts last year.  With positive tort reform in place, we received new and sincere interest by companies looking to expand or relocate their businesses.  Fully funding education sends a similar positive message to the world outside Mississippi.

The legislature will address both of these issues during the upcoming special session. We encourage you to ask your legislators to support both of these measures.

Lewis Slater, Senior Vice President, Governmental Relations