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Location: Nashville, Tennessee, United States

7/29/2003

Is Bredesen Prepping to Push New Economic Development Legislation?
From the Nashville Technology Council's July 29 TECHNOLOGY News and Events newsletter:

The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce reports that since July 1, 2002, executives with 712 companies considering relocation from sites outside Middle Tennessee have been communicated with by staff of Partnership 2010. Within the past 12 months, representatives of 94 potentially relocating employers have visited Middle Tennessee with the assistance of P2010/Chamber staff. Two-dozen of the visiting teams supported by P2010/Chamber staff are described at this time as either "enthusiastic" about the possibility of relocating here, or actually "negotiating" a move. One of the organizations said to be "negotiating" is described as a software company. Several other prospects are believed to have strong technology components within their operations. (Note: Agents of potentially relocating firms often study prospective relocation options confidentially, without revealing the name of the prospect company, before contacting local executives.)
That's good news for Nashville. But what about the rest of Tennessee? An Associated Press report in today's Knoxville News Sentinel says companies that have considered relocating to or expanding in Tennessee but ultimately chose another state instead often often did so "because of more affordable land, better tax incentives and lower costs for employee training, according to a questionnaire commissioned by Matt Kisber, Tennessee's commissioner of economic and community development. Kisber...
asked the University of Tennessee's Center for Business and Economic Research to conduct the unscientific survey "so we could better assess what we were doing and make changes to that."

The results, obtained by The Associated Press, includes responses from 29 of 119 businesses contacted by the center. Executives were asked to describe their businesses and the sites they considered, rank the importance of factors contributing to their decisions and compare the chosen site to the one looked at in Tennessee.

Kisber repeatedly cautioned that the survey's unscientific nature and small sample pool makes the results not "statistically valid."
Perhaps. But it is interesting and useful information. Kisber's boss, Gov. Phil Bredesen, made economic development deals a hallmark of his two terms as Nashville's mayor, and he's been aggressively pursuing a similar strategy as governor. Could this survey be the foundation of a legislative push next year to revamp the state's economic development tax and worker training incentives?