VICKSBURG - There was a time when elected officials went to ribbon-cuttings for the same reason beauty queens did. It was all about ceremony.
These days, however, while beauty queens are still invited to add a festive atmosphere, politicians often attend as major investors - with the distinction they're putting up the public's money, not their own.
No problem there.
The roots of public assistance for private business go back a long way in America. A transcontinental railroad would not have been possible without generous government inducements. Public airports serve private carriers. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains waterways for commerce. Imagine what the trucking industry would be like without interstate highways.
What has changed is that while governments once provided only "infrastructure," today's secretly negotiated packages contain so many details and entanglements that it's hard to tell where public ends and private starts.
Governors insist these negotiations must be confidential because their state economic development teams are in competition with other states to lure top prospects.
That's understandable, but how long should the secrecy last?
Take Mississippi's deal with Nissan, which produced its millionth vehicle in record time at its plant near Canton last month.
Former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove got credit for Nissan - landing 4,000 direct jobs and a $1 billion investment to create the plant that opened in 2003.
Not-so-widely remembered is that for every four dollars Nissan put into the venture, Mississippians put in more than one dollar. Direct incentives approved by the Legislature - job training, land acquisition, roads, drainage and more - cost $295 million when approved by lawmakers seven years ago. Another $50 million in bonds for a Nissan expansion was OK'd a year later.
That makes the public's investment at least 20 percent of the total cost.
Yet details of much of what was negotiated remain confusing and confidential, including incentives that may have been exacted from Entergy Mississippi, which sells the Nissan plant electricity.
It's quite possible that every Mississippian who buys power from Entergy is subsidizing below-cost rates being paid by Nissan, but we can't really know. Pointing out that Entergy is a regulated public utility, The Clarion-Ledger sued for disclosure of Nissan's electricity rates, but the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled this was none of the public's business.
So the question arises, if an incentive package is a good deal for the public, why can't the public know all the details? We're supposed to live in a country where government is answerable to the people. How can officials be answerable if we can't know what they've done?
Last week, the big and very welcomed news was that Toyota will, in three years, start churning out its popular Highlander SUVs from a $1.3 billion plant in Union County near Tupelo.
It's nothing short of a wonderful coup for Mississippi, and especially for a part of the state that has been facing job losses due to shutdowns of furniture plants and the giant Bryan Foods plant near West Point.
The initial 2,000 jobs at the Toyota plant will quickly be filled as will hundreds more to be offered by companies feeding the assembly line.
Gov. Haley Barbour, lead speaker at the announcement ceremony, said the package of incentives extended to Toyota in private talks over a period of two or three years is "about the same" as that extended to Nissan. Some sources value the state package at $326 million plus $30 million in local incentives. Some say more. Others say less. Every day there's a different number.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Gordon, D-Okolona, snapped his fingers and said, "It will take that long," when asked by the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal about the speed of approving the amount needed, whatever it is. He was right, but honest lawmakers will admit they really don't know what's in the package - just that they're sure it's a good deal.
Much has been made over Toyota pledging $5 million gifts per year for 10 years to public schools in a three-county area. It's only honest to remember, however, that Mississippians are paying about $350 million or so up front for a $50 million donation.
Public-private partnerships are absolutely necessary these days. It's great that Mississippi is joining other Southern states as a host for automakers departing the nation's colder climates for the warm reception and lower overhead this part of the nation offers.
It's just that if a citizen deposits as little as $10 in a private bank, the government requires the bank to make reams of disclosures.
When a government uses the money it collects from citizens to help a private business, why should expectations be less?
