Jackson Jambalaya

Doesn't he drive a Bentley

God help us.

Hmmmm. Ed Blackmon who is representative for the Canton area of Madison county is trying to do right by his constituents?!? The nerve of him!!!!!!!!

I noted a sum of sarcasm in 4:43's remark. After the house is trying to make a deal fly, with no taxpayer liability the Blackmon wants through a wrench in it. Doesn't realize the economic benefits of adding 1,000 payrolls, sales tax, income tax, and other benefits, and has no idea of the addtional operating cost and other factors effecting Nissan. Let the plant shut down or relocate and see how loud his constituents scream for food stamps.

Let Nissan operate without fighting a local tax or worrying about it. They pay the employees who spend money which benefits other working people. The workers provide housing for themselves, buy food,dry goods and all sorts of consumer products. I hope our lawmakers will provide Nissan with a good operating environment that they will feel confident about investing in.

Blackmon just needs to shut his pie hole, open a chicken outlet near the plant and go back and forth to the damned bank. His usefulness expired years ago.

Interesting comments here - and I agree with them. But what's the difference in letting Madison County issue bonds, to be paid for by Nissan, and the Southern Company issuing bonds that is the subject of the post below this one. The State is not on the hook for either set of bonds - they are the liability of a private company. But here, everybody is for it. On the other blog, where energy expert Clarke Reed is expressing his opinion to a one-sided blog site "Bigger Pie", everybody is piling on the legislature for allowing Southern Company to issue bonds.

Interesting.

7:36 is comparing lemons to oranges. Not a rational comparison, since Southern Co. is receiving other benefits and will be guaranteed a profit similar to other utilities.

Disagree, 8:31. Granted, Southern Company is "receiving other approvals (what you are calling benefits)" but they were approved by the PSC and confirmed by the MSSC. The comparison here is what the legislature has done. In the Nissan deal, the legislature has allowed Madison County to issue a new kind of bond - thus requiring legislative approval. Southern Company was allowed, by the legislature, to issue a new kind of bond - thus requiring legislative approval. In both cases, the state has no liability for the bonds. Might be Fugi and Washington Reds, but they are both apples.

8:43, I don't think so. Nissan makes cars, trucks, and SUVs. They made them long before they started building them in Madison County 10 years ago, and they had a track record of success. This new expansion will be their 4th.
The reason people have such a problem with Kemper County is that it is not a proven technology. No one knows if it is going to really work, and a lot of astute people are wondering how it got this far.
If the credit rating of MS Power takes a beating because the PSC won't let them hike customer rates in order to pay a tiny sliver of the cost of Kemper, that should tell you something smelly is coming down the pike. MS Power, and Southern Company, can't afford this to go badly. But they can't tell us that it will work, and will make money, without having to gouge the customers.
So what do they do? They saddle rate payers with the cost of financing this risky new technology.
Now consider Nissan. Private bond holders will finance the creation of many jobs with no tax payers paying for it.
Nissan makes a product, profitably, and sells it to a consumer. If the consumer doesn't want to buy it, they won't.
The problem with Kemper County is that EVERY MS Power customer who needs ELECTRICITY is forced to pay for it and has no choice to move his or her account to Entergy.
If the price of a Nissan automobile becomes too expensive, customers have many other choices and can drive a Honda, or a Ford.

So you see, it really is not apples to apples.

If i recall correctly Nissan had an agreement that they would NOT be annexed into the city if they built the plant. Having live in Canton for 34 of my 43 years I can understand why. Taxes from Nissan would be another way for the Mayor and Friends to line their pockets. Canton, well Canton is the last thing on their minds.

Didn't Truly et al already attempt to annex and the court ruled in favor of Nissan in fighting it? An agreement is an agreement. What a concept. Blackmon is on the take.

I keep forgetting. Are we supposed to be for the free market or against it? Because it seems to change a lot, depending on who's asking for the help.

5:54 am It's fine to be for a free market if you actually understand what that is or isn't. Unfortunately, those who don't are gullible and as a result we have corporations that are " too big to fail" or so essential to local economy that there is not free competition in the market.
The taxpayers being forced to guarantee profit and/or reduce business risk is not a free market.
Nor is business being seen as a " citizen" so they can use their profits for propaganda compatible with free market concept.
It's not a free market when government regulation promoted by mega businesses prevents competition from entering the market.
A free market doesn't dictate demand by telling the consumers what they can't demand.
So it's fine to discuss economic principles if you understand economics rather than what either political party or special interest tells you.

9:31 - the 'arguments' you make about Kemper track almost exactly those made in the 70's against Grand Gulf. But history has proven that GG has been a blessing to commercial and industrial users in MS by having a stable source of electrical power.

The difference between a regulated utility and a private company are true. But there is another difference, and that is in the term "regulated". While consumers can choose to buy a Toyota rather than a Nissan and can't change energy suppliers, MPC's rates are controlled by the state.

My point in my first comment was that the "legislature's" role in both these deals was allowing the use of a new kind of borrowing - and while everyone, including me, except for Blackman - is in favor of allowing Madison County to issue these bonds, commentators on the preceding post are bitching about the same legislature allowing MPC to issue a private bond.

What has political party got to do with your little economics lesson, 7:56? The thousands of jobs at and around Nissan are not stamped democrat or republican.

Some important people - at least they think they are important - have gotten their feelings hurt because they weren't in the loop. Tough toenails. Ed Blackmon, Ferr Smith, Steve Holland (??) will get their turns to complain so they can save face and this bill will pass. It's too good to pass up - hundreds of new jobs, expansion of Madison County's flagship employer, all at zero risk to the taxpayer. Even the corrupt politicians in Canton and the north part of the County will see the value in this, as there will be plenty of opportunity for them to line their pockets in the next few years. Bill Billingsley

Ed Blackmon has to have lost his mind. He truly believes that Nissan would consult him on anything?

I thought when the last "Battle for the City Limits was fought and lost. Blackmon said it was never his intention to get the plant into the city limits. Now what has changed?

I thought when the last "Battle for the City Limits was fought and lost. Blackmon said it was never his intention to get the plant into the city limits. Now what has changed?

They didn't ask him nicely.

Billingsley you are right....because the 'other' politician and her hubby and friends already made their money of the grossly undervalued homes and land from the poor mostly black folk...oh how soon we forget...

I didn't live here then and don't know much about it, but it's not the subject being discussed and I generally don't hijack someone else's thread. Scroll down and comment on the mayor's race thread if you want to get into a discussion about the mayor, assuming that's who you're talking about.

Billingsley, wasn't a hijack and on the same subject that you brought up...'Even the corrupt politicians in Canton and the north part of the County will see the value in this, as there will be plenty of opportunity for them to line their pockets in the next few years.'. I just pointed out that when the plant was originally built there were a lot of people who were taken advantage of...the people you named are not the only people that have tried, made and continue to make money off of this plant.

Just as slavery was justified with a scripture here and a scripture there without looking at the entire passage…this thread speaks of one man (maybe more today) trying to block a cash cow that so many have benefited. Call a spade a spade. Though I agree that the plant had helped the area and people through job generation and economic growth…it bothers me that some people get passes and others don’t…a sin is a sin…

@11:35 Today is Good Friday. Maybe some of those sinners will go to church; not saying it will change them. It's always been that way, and will probably continue. How long have you lived in Mississippi?

11:28, I'd love to hear more about who was taken advantage of, who took the advantage and who's still collecting. Like I said, I didn't live here at the time and am unfamiliar with the deal.

Please raise your hand if you actually think the largest automotive plant in America can drop into a community without someone benefitting from it. That it wasn't YOU (or me) is, as my daddy used to say, tough titty.