Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Half-Truth Haley
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has pretty much been able to say whatever he wants without the Magnolia state's press checking him on it. Thankfully, the Mississippi Democratic Party has finally started to.
Sam Hall, the party's new Communications Director has started collecting Haley's lies, putting them with the information that proves them false, and redistributing it all to lazy reporters. It's part of a collection Sam calls "Half-Truth Haley."
Haley's recent lies deal with a contest between my two favorite states. It also deals with the biggest fraud the GOP has ever put on the American people: so-called tort reform. That said, here's "Half-Truth Haley" #6:
Gov. Haley Barbour's most recent column makes preposterous claims about the impact of tort reform on the business community. The governor says that the lack of tort reform hurt Mississippi's economic development viability and that because of new laws enacted a once-fledgling insurance industry has returned to our state. The real truth is below...
HALF THE TRUTH
"Even companies such as Toyota said Mississippi's legal climate was one of the reasons the automobile manufacturer decided not to locate one of its plants in our state."
THE WHOLE TRUTH
Texas, the eventual winner of the Toyota plant, was also listed as a "judicial hellhole," but offered a better proposal to Toyota than did Mississippi.
The governor makes his claims based on a letter he coerced from Toyota Senior Vice President Dennis Cuneo. However, Cuneo had prior to the letter praised Mississippi and its political leadership under Gov. Ronnie Musgrove in a unique statement made to the press regarding a site that went unpicked.
"It is not Toyota's usual policy to comment on other sites we look at as part of our selection process, but in this case I'd like to make an exception for Mississippi," said Cuneo. "We were very impressed with the potential site in Mississippi and the bi-partisan spirit of government officials with whom we worked. This was a difficult decision for us, and we had to choose from several attractive options." (Mississippi Business Journal, Feb. 24, 2003)
It would be interesting to see if Toyota or any other business could find the same bi-partisan spirit in a Barbour administration as was found under his Democratic predecessor. But we digress.
To say Mississippi was passed over because of a lack of tort reform based on its "judicial hellhole" rating from a partisan organization does not hold water, especially when Texas' judicial system was ranked 46th in the nation by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In fact, in 2003, Mississippi and Texas were lumped together by the U.S. Chamber as being at the bottom of the judicial heap.
The U.S. Chamber said "those states perceived as having the worst performance were Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas."
Of course, how much stock can you put into the U.S. Chamber's label of a state being a "judicial hellhole" when they say their research "find(s) a majority of states deserve a grade of fair to poor?"
The truth is that Toyota picked Texas over Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas because the Lone Star State put together a better package. San Antonio is home to a beautiful riverwalk, a rejuvenated downtown area with retro standards and brick streets and an NBA franchise. Since that wasn't enough, Texas provided $133 million in incentives to Toyota.
Even after all of that, Cuneo, the Toyota VP, said two other major factors swayed the automotive company's decision to the Texas site:
1) $15 million in state funds committed to create two separate rail accesses for the auto plant;
2) a $27 million commitment to train the 2,000 workers to be employed by Toyota in San Antonio.
In the end, a lack of tort reform did not hurt economic development in Mississippi. A much larger, much wealthier state just out-bid us, and the governor should tell the truth about it.
Play it again, Sam.
Sam Hall, the party's new Communications Director has started collecting Haley's lies, putting them with the information that proves them false, and redistributing it all to lazy reporters. It's part of a collection Sam calls "Half-Truth Haley."
Haley's recent lies deal with a contest between my two favorite states. It also deals with the biggest fraud the GOP has ever put on the American people: so-called tort reform. That said, here's "Half-Truth Haley" #6:
Gov. Haley Barbour's most recent column makes preposterous claims about the impact of tort reform on the business community. The governor says that the lack of tort reform hurt Mississippi's economic development viability and that because of new laws enacted a once-fledgling insurance industry has returned to our state. The real truth is below...
HALF THE TRUTH
"Even companies such as Toyota said Mississippi's legal climate was one of the reasons the automobile manufacturer decided not to locate one of its plants in our state."
THE WHOLE TRUTH
Texas, the eventual winner of the Toyota plant, was also listed as a "judicial hellhole," but offered a better proposal to Toyota than did Mississippi.
The governor makes his claims based on a letter he coerced from Toyota Senior Vice President Dennis Cuneo. However, Cuneo had prior to the letter praised Mississippi and its political leadership under Gov. Ronnie Musgrove in a unique statement made to the press regarding a site that went unpicked.
"It is not Toyota's usual policy to comment on other sites we look at as part of our selection process, but in this case I'd like to make an exception for Mississippi," said Cuneo. "We were very impressed with the potential site in Mississippi and the bi-partisan spirit of government officials with whom we worked. This was a difficult decision for us, and we had to choose from several attractive options." (Mississippi Business Journal, Feb. 24, 2003)
It would be interesting to see if Toyota or any other business could find the same bi-partisan spirit in a Barbour administration as was found under his Democratic predecessor. But we digress.
To say Mississippi was passed over because of a lack of tort reform based on its "judicial hellhole" rating from a partisan organization does not hold water, especially when Texas' judicial system was ranked 46th in the nation by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In fact, in 2003, Mississippi and Texas were lumped together by the U.S. Chamber as being at the bottom of the judicial heap.
The U.S. Chamber said "those states perceived as having the worst performance were Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas."
Of course, how much stock can you put into the U.S. Chamber's label of a state being a "judicial hellhole" when they say their research "find(s) a majority of states deserve a grade of fair to poor?"
The truth is that Toyota picked Texas over Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas because the Lone Star State put together a better package. San Antonio is home to a beautiful riverwalk, a rejuvenated downtown area with retro standards and brick streets and an NBA franchise. Since that wasn't enough, Texas provided $133 million in incentives to Toyota.
Even after all of that, Cuneo, the Toyota VP, said two other major factors swayed the automotive company's decision to the Texas site:
1) $15 million in state funds committed to create two separate rail accesses for the auto plant;
2) a $27 million commitment to train the 2,000 workers to be employed by Toyota in San Antonio.
In the end, a lack of tort reform did not hurt economic development in Mississippi. A much larger, much wealthier state just out-bid us, and the governor should tell the truth about it.
Play it again, Sam.
