Economic progress in Arkansas, last location and losing ground

I just recently drove down U.S. 65 to Gillett by method of Pine Bluff, Moscow, Tamo and Grady. I took the back method through Gould, then over to the Pendleton bridge. Parts of eastern Arkansas look like photos I have actually seen of war-torn establishing countries. I imply no offense here to individuals in either location. I think they all want more for themselves than they are able to handle.

I know a lot of folks with deep roots all over this state, and we live here because we love it here. We have significant issues with respect to rural health care, education and economic growth.

When things are going badly, they frequently go gradually until the catastrophe occurs. In many of Arkansas, the bottom of the tub is about to drop out.
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So it's odd that our statewide leaders are telling us that we are doing just fine. They make noise about all sorts of hot-button problems, like building monoliths to the coming, promoting universal school vouchers, prohibiting library books and damning some amorphous group usually referred to as the "woke mob."
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I think there is technique in all of this. Arkansans struggling in nearly every measurable way have purchased into the idea that things are respectable and improving, as the relaxing heat of divisive political hyperbole rains carefully down on them, and diverts their attention from their bad health, illiteracy and economic despair.

Hard numbers, hard facts

Despite pomp from the state, the difficult numbers tell us things are really not good.
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The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (" BEA") offers information on the state of the U.S. economy. It is an independent arm of the U.S. Department of Commerce. According to their December numbers, in the 3rd quarter of 2023, personal income rose in 49 out of 50 states. Guess which state was left out? Yes, Arkansas. Individual income in Arkansas was flat, which put us dead last in individual income growth.

Genuine gross domestic product, referred to as GDP, increased drastically in many states in the 3rd quarter of 2023. GDP is an excellent measurement of wealth development through economic output and productivity. Development ranged from 9.7% in Kansas to 0.7% in Arkansas. Once again, we proud Arkansans were dead last.
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Northwest Arkansas stays robust. The growth there is more than offset by the depression settled over the rest of the state.

Lagging behind the next-door neighbors

While our guv pushes expenses through the Legislature to fund personal and church schools, scam higher education and kill the solar energy market, other states are running circle us.
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Take a look at Alabama's financial 2025 spending plan. Alabama is investing 10s of millions on financial development projects and personnel development. For 2024-2025, Alabama appropriated $18 million for a rural workforce development center, $30 million for an electric lorry workforce training center and $40 million to develop and fund the Alabama Site Development Fund to evaluate and establish future industrial and manufacturing sites. On Feb. 26, Alabama designated more than $30 million to start advancement of a variety of websites amounting to about 8,400 acres.

How does Arkansas compare? Our 2024 spending plan is difficult to understand. The Arkansas spending plan for economic development advises me of the budget of a struggling church. There is just adequate money to support the personnel, pay the energies, continue some deserving programs and maintain the structure, however there is not much left over for new mission work.
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Economic development is a long video game. In 2021, Ford decided to locate a $5.6 billion investment at the Memphis Regional Megasite, a 4,200-acre, state-owned website that had been under development for 15 years, long before electrical vehicles were being produced in any business amounts. The new assembly plant will bring about 5,600 jobs to a site 45 miles east of Memphis. Imagine such a project someplace east of Little Rock.

In Arkansas we rely in part on the Governor's Quick Action Closing Fund to woo companies to set up major projects in our state. Basically a slush fund that can be used at the governor's discretion, the Quick Action Closing Fund permits "the Governor to act quickly and decisively … … to settle an arrangement with a company to find a financial development project in the state."

In fiscal 2022, the total expense from this fund had to do with $52 million; $50 million of that went to Big River Steel. The majority of the rest went as rebates to movie production companies.

Having some cash readily available at the tail end makes some sense, but already it's typically too late. We are seldom making the final cut since we aren't all set with the skilled or trainable labor force and fundamental facilities needed to get a task off the ground.
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Hope is not a plan

In February, a number of energy companies hosted a Lithium Innovation Conference proclaiming Arkansas's lithium resources. Discovered in the deep groundwater in south Arkansas, lithium is utilized in the batteries of electrical cars.

One business, Standard Lithium, has a pilot job which seems to be moving slowly. If the stock rate of Standard Lithium is any sign of the economic practicality of its extraction process, things look bleak.

Sometimes the marketplaces get things wrong, and we can hope this is one of those cases. Hope is not an economic advancement technique.

The lithium conference is an ideal example of a big occasion without a function. I didn't see anything that made it much easier or more attractive for business to come here and develop anything. Arkansas's subterranean lithium shops are not an economic strategy, however a peculiarity of nature.

Lithium mining, if it proves possible, might be a good idea for Arkansas, however the big rewards originate from including worth to raw materials. Lithium production, if done in a manner in which does no damage to the environment, is fine. But producing lithium batteries and putting together the lorries that use those batteries are much more crucial than mining the raw product. Far those value-added jobs are going elsewhere.

Gov. Sarah Sanders spoke at the lithium conference. Less than a month previously she and 15 other governors sent President Biden a letter informing him to roll back the required for electric lorry usage. That is reasonable, I think, but it is inconsistent to make political hay and then argue that it ought to not be fed to the livestock.
The State of Mississippi just announced a joint endeavor amongst Daimler Trucks, Cummins, and truck maker PACCAR to produce lithium-iron-phosphate batteries for large trucks. It will be a $2-$3 billion investment to develop a factory in north Mississippi. That is a game-changer in Mississippi. In Arkansas, we've had a conference and so far, very little more.

Throughout our last session, the Arkansas Legislature essentially stopped the advancement of massive solar power centers for anybody besides the politically powerful traditional energy companies. Large commercial users want to own solar centers, both for the cost savings they can accomplish and the "green" image projected when a big facility is powered by on-site renewable resource. Our guv and Legislature provided the conventional electric energies what they desired, a monopoly on massive tasks. When we are trying to compete for major manufacturing and assembly plants, that choice will harm our state.

In the meantime, I keep reading journalism releases from our governor telling us that we Arkansans need lower taxes, more school choice, larger prisons, fewer library book alternatives, and less government openness, especially when it comes to her costs on household travel.

We have a state surplus, so our guv guarantees more tax cuts, primarily for folks who do not need the money. If anybody slams what is occurring, we get the typical talking points about how "woke" liberals are trying to corrupt our morals, destroy our schools, indoctrinate our children and eliminate our weapons.

Are those truly the issues we need to deal with? Or is our attention being diverted from the reality that the state of Arkansas is dead-last in income development?

Hugh McDonald, the previous Entergy executive and always a strong neighborhood leader, was appointed by Sanders to lead our state's Department of Commerce. I give the governor a lot of credit for making a great consultation.

But our Department of Commerce has no genuine cash for long-range preparation and real advancement of big commercial/industrial/manufacturing websites. The overall yearly state allotment is $52,210,729. Over half of that is for adult education and rehabilitation services. These are worthy programs, however they are not specifically targeted towards major economic advancement.

States like Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas are investing a lot more than Arkansas, and it is settling for them.

If we had actually taken some of our huge surpluses and invested the cash in facilities for massive companies, we may be in the running for similar transformative financial development in our state.

Rather, the governor wants to invest around $450 million on a brand-new 3,000-bed prison. I consider that to be akin to funeral pre-arrangement. Let's strategy to have a lot of criminal offense, a lot of prison area, and a great deal of individuals secured doing nothing to assist our state grow.

There is a much better path. If you desire the dividends, you have to make the financial investments.
I suggest we construct a smaller brand-new prison and spend $200 million a year for the next five years, or a smooth $1,000,000,000, on education and financial advancement. Invest in the state, rather than cut taxes. Cut taxes later on, when we have more individuals employed, and more tax income coming in.

Initiate universal pre-K education for each kid in Arkansas. And please don't offer personal and church school coupons for this.

Produce a number of brand-new service parks, with associated solar facilities and workforce development programs. Optimize connectivity with rail and interstate highway gain access to. Construct a workforce training center for emerging manufacturing innovations in eastern Arkansas along I-40, and get several supersites prepared for usage.

Double the size of the engineering programs in our state universities.
When development begins, cities can fund infrastructure with bonds funded by growing sales tax receipts. (See the bond offerings from cities in Northwest Arkansas).

We better get used to finishing dead last if we do not up our video game.