Governor announces $110M investment toward ongoing economic development
Updated: 3:39 PM CST Nov 13, 2024
Well, good afternoon and *** huge thank you to everyone that is um here today, as well as those of you who are watching on the live stream. It is an exciting day. It’s an exciting day for Mississippi. I think when you see what we’re looking at here specifically, uh with these four shovels that we have won for economic development successes in Mississippi in 2020 2122 and 23. These shovels represent *** lot of successes, *** lot of momentum, but they also represent the past. What we’re showing you today on this map is not the entirety of, but this map represents the future. I’m proud to have standing behind me today. *** number of state legislators, members of the Mississippi House and Mississippi Senate. Y’all heard me say this *** lot, but economic development is *** team sport and the reality is we have worked very closely with the leadership in the House and the Senate and been very blessed to garner the resources that Mississippi needs to give us *** competitive advantage when going after new economic development projects. I also have with me today, the uh leaders of the Mississippi Development Authority, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, the um uh *** RC uh as well as the Department of Environmental Quality. And what you’ll see on this map is *** combination of different investments that are being announced today that includes projects um from the site development grant program uh that we’ve set up, that was funded at its largest level ever in the 2024 legislative session. Uh You also see uh *** RC grants, you see Dr *** grants, you see restore Act grants, you see Mesa Grants and you also see SCRC uh which is the newest of those federal programs, uh which we are uh also administering one of the reasons I wanted to have this event today and have it here in Jackson. Oftentimes we take these individual grant programs and we announce them in the specific places where they’re actually take where, where they’re actually happening. Um It’s good for everyone in our state, but more importantly, Bill, I think it’s good for our site selectors around the country to see that in Mississippi, we are investing in economic development and we are investing in site development in every single region of our state. We have prioritized site development because we believe that speed to market is *** key component of decisions that are gonna be made in the future and we’re gonna be prepared for that. So overall, today, I am announcing over 100 and $10 million in new investment that is aimed at continuing Mississippi’s economic development momentum and it’s also intended to attract even more record-breaking private sector investment to our state. The majority of these investments over 97 million in total will go towards site development, infrastructure improvements and workforce training support throughout Mississippi. The grants that we are announcing today will be funded through, as I mentioned earlier, *** variety of sources, the Mississippi Development Authority, Appalachian Regional Commission, the Delta Regional Authority, Restore App Go Mesa and the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission. These investments will be critical to ensuring our state continues to experience unprecedented success and they will be vital in ensuring that the over 3 million people who live here continue to be prepared, not for the jobs of the last 50 years, but for the jobs of the next 50 years. Together, we’ve accomplished historic things for Mississippi. Our state’s economy is firing on all cylinders and it’s growing stronger every single day. We’ve built an economy that the entire state can be proud of and together we continue to do whatever it takes to make Mississippi the best state in the nation to invest, to live, to work and to raise *** family. These investments that we announced today will go *** long way towards helping us accomplish that goal. Earlier this year, we stood up here with many of the same folks behind me today to announce the largest private sector capital investment in Mississippi and over $10 billion capital investment by AWS to build two large data centers in the Jackson metro area. We know this project is gonna create 1000 new jobs and we further submit Mississippi’s reputation as *** leader in high tech innovation. And just last week, we broke ground on the largest economic development project in the history of the Mississippi Delta. *** $1.2 billion investment by energy to build the Delta Blues Advanced Power Station, which is large enough as an example to power 385,000 homes in our state. In addition to that, we’ve had other huge successes, *** $2 billion private sector investment in Marshall County, which is *** combined commitment by accelerate by CS Daler trucks and pack car that we know is gonna create 2000 jobs and $66,000 *** year salaries. And it wasn’t that long ago when we announced what was then the largest economic development project in state history up in Lowndes County. And that’s the $2.5 billion investment by aluminum dynamics in Columbus. It’s gonna create an additional 1000 jobs with an average salary of $93,000 *** year. All of these our home run projects and we’re proud of every single one of them, but we’re also proud of what we may consider at the state level. *** single or *** double that in those communities around our state are considered home. Runs or grand slams for each of the small communities around Mississippi. And these have led to *** lot of good things in our state, like the creation of thousands of jobs. We now have more people working in Mississippi than ever before. We have the lowest unemployment rate in our state’s history. And I just want everyone to know we didn’t just win these deals by accident. We won them because we were forward looking. We were strategic in our investments and because we prioritize creating *** business climate that encourages companies to invest, to hire and to expand within our borders, we focused on site development. And since I’ve been governor, we’ve invested over 100 and $49 million in more than 70 sites broadly distributed across the state and adjacent to important labor and infrastructure connections. We are listening to the decision makers who tell us what they’re looking for when they’re looking to locate in America. And we’re trying to make sure that we have the best sites available everywhere. In addition to that, we’re investing in infrastructure improvements, repairing bridges, expanding roads, improving airports and strengthening our ports. We’re making sure that our infrastructure is bigger and better so it is fully prepared to handle our expanding economy. The investments that I’m announcing today will help create even more high paying jobs and new business opportunities all across Mississippi. Now, before I make the announcements, I want to know that the list of projects that I’m featuring in my remarks today are not exhaustive. My team has emailed the entire full list to each of you so that should be in your inboxes. Now, first on the list, I wanna talk about MD *** site development grant program. The largest allocation we’ve ever received from the Mississippi legislature. We got this year and this year’s session and our team at MD *** went to work and we are going to announce some $29.4 million allocated in this program. Much of this will go to highly competitive industrial select sites throughout the state. This includes approximately $2.36 million to extend water and sewer lines at the East Metro Center Industrial Park in Rankin County, $3.29 million to clear and level 100 and 40 acres at the Mississippi River Energy Complex in Adams County, nearly $10.5 million to conduct wetlands mitigation as required by the Cous Army Corps of Engineers permit at the Mississippi River Inland Port complex mega site in Warren County. $486,000 to conduct *** transmission line scoping study at the Spring Industrial Park in Marshall County. Over 1.1 million to clear trees, conduct grading to improve ingress, add signage and complete site due diligence at the gateway Industrial Park in Pike County. $3 million to grow, grade and construct two building paths, design and construct access roads, extend water and sewer lines and make drainage improvements at the ST Technology Park in Hancock County. Over 1.7 million to construct *** 300,000 square foot building pad at Martin Town North Industrial Park in Union County. Over 828,000 to extend water lines, rehabilitate an existing million gallon water tank and improve an access road at the I 59 South Industrial site in Jones County. Incidentally tomorrow morning, I will be in Jones County for *** ribbon cutting of *** site that we had of *** project that we announced there. Cold Link storage just over *** year ago at $2.43 million to conduct the necessary engineering to pursue *** US army Corps of engineers permit at the Eagle One mega site in Forest and Lamar counties. And over $1.43 million to construct *** water tank and relocate power lines at the Pearl River County Industrial Park in Pearl River County. Next, I’d like to highlight some of the premier site grants for our locations in high demand areas that also have intermodal and or port access. First. The Northwest Industrial Park in Hinds County will be receiving 100 and 50,000 to conduct site due diligence and to clear and grub over 212,000 will be used to conduct *** capacity study and preen engineering for water and wastewater improvements. Relocate *** fiber line and clear grub grade and fill selected areas at the cold water site in Tate County. Over $200,000 will be used to develop *** master plan and conduct site due diligence at the Greenwood Leflore Industrial Park in Leflore County. *** quarter million dollars will be used to conduct preen engineering for *** rail spur and concept mapping as well as for site due diligence at the Wyndal Industrial Center down in South Hinds County. Now you can see and I specifically gave you more specifics than you might have wanted on each of those projects. But all this stuff ain’t all that sexy. It’s water, it’s sewer, it’s core infrastructure. It’s the things that government is supposed to do, but it gets us ready for that next major project and it helps with our speed to market arguments. We continue to focus on those capabilities. Boliver Lamar and Kipper counties all have ready sites that will be served also by this round of grant funding. In addition to our site development grant program, the team behind me and I have also applied *** holistic approach to leverage other grant source funds for development throughout the state. As an example, you heard me mention Martin Town North Industrial Park earlier through our mbas select sites program. In addition to that, we’ll also be receiving over $1.7 million in *** RC funds to install *** water well that will complement the elevated water tower supported by site development grant funding and we’ll spend 408,000 in dr *** funds to improve the drainage at the Northwest Cleveland, specifically at the Cleveland Municipal Airport, which will allow for the development of the north airport industrial site in Boliver County. But also I want you to know that while site development is incredibly important, it’s not the only avenue we’re using to lay the foundation for even more future success. We’re also using these various funding sources to upgrade and expand infrastructure and to further grow workforce training across the state. You heard me say this before, you know, four years ago, excuse me, 20 years ago, 21 years ago when I started in government, the first question that every economic development site select or otherwise asked us is tell me about your incentives. Well, five or six years later, they still get back to that by the way. But five or six years later, that was no longer the first question. The first question was tell me about your workforce five or six years later, they still are interested in the workforce. But now they’re asking more and more about, tell me about speed to market. So while we’re dealing with our speed to market through infrastructure investments, we also have to be sure that we’re investing in our greatest asset, which is our people and through workforce development investments, we are doing exactly that again. The full list of those projects are in your inbox. But I just want to tell you about *** couple of them. First, we’re allocating $6.6 million in restore *** funding to be used to support the construction of the Mississippi Cyber and Technology Center in Harrison County. It’s no secret that Mississippi today is attracting cutting eggs jobs in the technology sector. Through this investment, Mississippi will be able to better prepare our fellow Mississippians for these high paying job opportunities and to further solidify our place as *** leader in technological innovation. And from the SCRC, we’re gonna spend *** half *** million dollars used to install *** turn lane and signalization along highway 145 in Clark County to address the increased traffic and expand economic growth in the region. Really good things are happening in Clark County and this investment will help further facilitate that. As you can see, these investments are numerous and they touch every region of our state. I know that they will do *** lot of good for our economic development efforts. I know that at the end of the day, these investments are smart investments to help Mississippians again, another great day for our state. Another day that shows that we have real momentum in Mississippi. And so before I open the floor to questions, I just wanna once again tell you and thank you the people of Mississippi because while all of us up here are either elected or appointed positions, we all work for the people of Mississippi. And what I hope everyone sees is that these investments are specifically for the purpose of helping our people and helping build upon the historic successes that we’re seeing in our state today. Something special is happening here and it’s because of hard working Mississippians all across Miss, all across our state. Thanks to everyone that’s watching today for helping us ensure an even brighter future for Mississippi.
Governor announces $110M investment toward ongoing economic development
Updated: 3:39 PM CST Nov 13, 2024
Gov. Tate Reeves held a news conference on Wednesday to announce investments from the state that he said will create hundreds of jobs. Reeves said the state will invest more than $110 million toward economic development, infrastructure upgrades, workforce development, tourism and conservation efforts. “Mississippi’s economic development results have been historic and unprecedented,” Reeves said. “We’ve secured billions in new private sector investment and created thousands of jobs across the state. The funding we announced today will go a long way toward continuing Mississippi’s economic momentum and will help create more high-paying job opportunities for Mississippians across the state.”The governor’s office said funding for the projects comes from the Mississippi Development Authority, Appalachian Regional Commission, Delta Regional Authority, RESTORE Act, GOMESA, and Southeast Crescent Regional Commission. The projects are spread across the state. In Rankin County, $2.36 million will go toward East Metro Center Industrial park to extend water and sewer lines. In Hinds County, $150,000 will go to the Northwest Industrial Park to conduct site due diligence and clear and grub. Also in Hinds County, up to $250,000 is earmarked for the Wynndale Industrial Center to conduct pre-engineering for a rail spur and concept mapping, as well as site due diligence. The Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Network Program will use $7.14 million to develop a workforce training program to support AI and technology fields in Coahoma, Copiah, Newton, Kemper, Hinds, Holmes, Itawamba, Jones, Lauderdale, Pearl River, Pike, Prentiss, Sunflower, Stone and Tate counties. Tap here for a full list of projects.
Gov. Tate Reeves held a news conference on Wednesday to announce investments from the state that he said will create hundreds of jobs.
Reeves said the state will invest more than $110 million toward economic development, infrastructure upgrades, workforce development, tourism and conservation efforts.
“Mississippi’s economic development results have been historic and unprecedented,” Reeves said. “We’ve secured billions in new private sector investment and created thousands of jobs across the state. The funding we announced today will go a long way toward continuing Mississippi’s economic momentum and will help create more high-paying job opportunities for Mississippians across the state.”
The governor’s office said funding for the projects comes from the Mississippi Development Authority, Appalachian Regional Commission, Delta Regional Authority, RESTORE Act, GOMESA, and Southeast Crescent Regional Commission.
The projects are spread across the state. In Rankin County, $2.36 million will go toward East Metro Center Industrial park to extend water and sewer lines. In Hinds County, $150,000 will go to the Northwest Industrial Park to conduct site due diligence and clear and grub. Also in Hinds County, up to $250,000 is earmarked for the Wynndale Industrial Center to conduct pre-engineering for a rail spur and concept mapping, as well as site due diligence.
The Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Network Program will use $7.14 million to develop a workforce training program to support AI and technology fields in Coahoma, Copiah, Newton, Kemper, Hinds, Holmes, Itawamba, Jones, Lauderdale, Pearl River, Pike, Prentiss, Sunflower, Stone and Tate counties.
