February 10, 2025 • 30 mins
It's no accident that some of the world's biggest brands have chosen to call Tennessee home.
The Tennessee Dept. of Economic & Community Development is constantly promoting Tennessee's attractive business climate and has delivered many success stories that are impacting the state now and into the future. TNECD is not only behind the relocation and expansion of businessess in the Volunteer state, but they also help people develop new skills for an emerging workforce that is needed. Recently, John Clark spoke with Stewart McWhorter, Commissioner of TNECD for this episode of TENNESSEE MATTERS. TNECD website: https://tnecd.com/
The Tennessee Dept. of Economic & Community Development is constantly promoting Tennessee's attractive business climate and has delivered many success stories that are impacting the state now and into the future. TNECD is not only behind the relocation and expansion of businessess in the Volunteer state, but they also help people develop new skills for an emerging workforce that is needed. Recently, John Clark spoke with Stewart McWhorter, Commissioner of TNECD for this episode of TENNESSEE MATTERS. TNECD website: https://tnecd.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Tennessee Matters on the Tennessee Radio Network. Welcome to
Tennessee Matters. I'm John Clark in the Tennessee Radio Network.
In Tennessee. It's no accident that some of the biggest
and most respected brands in the world have chosen Tennessee
to call their home. Companies who come to Tennessee are
not just looking for a place to do business. They're
(00:21):
looking for a home. Tennessee's reputation for the quality of
their work and the quality of Tennessee lifestyle means more.
Today we're going to talk with Strip mcwater. He's the
commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
It's good to be here. And and if we have
we talk about economic development. And while we're while we're
talking about it, there's progress in the background.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yes, y'all are building who we are building.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
We love to see construction happening in our state, right
here in Nashville in particular.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Right right, that's true. As we're here at iHeart in Nashville,
and we are we are we're just talking about that.
As we started to show about these men are putting
the building.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
The building building. But yeah, we should.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I should probably do all of my interviews around construction
sites because that's just kind of it's a it's a
signal to what we do.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yeah, sure, it really is.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
And and to that, what's going on, what's the latest
with what with building in Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, well, it's great to be here. Appreciate the opportunity
to speak and share about what's happening. You know, we're
we're very passionate about what we do here in Tennessee.
Our department, I got one hundred people that were going
to work every day.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You know, to further the mission of economic development.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
We uh, yeah, I think we've had a remarkable six
years with Governor Lee. He's at the end of this year,
we'll have completed six years, so he's halfway through his
second term, and we've just had a you know, remarkable run.
We've had over well over five hundred projects announced from
(01:56):
our department. We're almost at We're just a few hundred
jobs away, net new jobs away from one hundred thousand
net new jobs during that period of time and just
over forty billion dollars of capital investment from those five
hundred plus jobs.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So it's been. It's been a great six years.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
And you know, always have to recognize those that led
before us that really set this up for success, whether
it was Governor Bill Haslam, Governor Phil Bredesen, you know,
many many decades of great leadership we've had in this state,
with a great legislature that supports.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
The work that we do. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Sure, and you know, it's just an exciting time to
be in Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
It really is. And we look out now, I mean
look right here where we are, right in Nashville. We've
seen it grow over the last few years. It's really grown.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
It has, especially in Nashville. I mean, Nashville is the
one of the fastest growing cities in the country. There
are folks that move here from all over you know,
the US.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
From all over the world, quite frankly.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
And you know, we've had a lot of success attracting
international companies to our state, not just here at Nashville,
but to the state of Tennessee. But yeah, Nashville's I've
been here thirty years and I have seen it grow
quite a bit. And I love I love this location.
You're right here on Broadway looking out over Coming Station,
the Gults, and what a.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Great, what a great view it is.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It is well, I know one area is this for
all of rural Tennessee is broadband. That's been really that's
been big. Senator Blackburn helped out with that. We talk
about that some.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Sure, Well we started I can I can go back
a little bit more when I was the Commissioner of
financi and Administration. This was when the governor first came
into office. The only source of capital we had available
to invest in broadband was through the state's funding and
at that time we were allocating ten to fifteen million
(03:58):
a year with the support of the legist and so
the federal government stepped in. You know, I guess it
was right around there. May be right pre COVID, but
certainly during COVID, and had a federal program to really
put more fuel of the fire on on internet and
broadband access across you know, the US, and as the
(04:21):
United States continues to grow, particularly Rule America, there was
a need to just build that infrastructure. So we have
received as a state close to almost a billion dollars
now that has been allocated, that has gone through our department,
and we have a team that works very closely with
all of the broadband providers to get these dollars out
(04:43):
and allocated and granted to them so they can get
the work done. And you know what is it's it's
a it's a remarkable program. It's a remarkable effort because
what you're doing is you're literally changing people's lives and
it's a utility that really everybody should have access to.
And when you start talking to folks that live further
out in rural Tennessee in particular, you know they they
(05:07):
have not had that access. And you're talking about how
it helps kids in school, how it helps small businesses,
how it helps even remote workers. You know, you can
almost live anywhere now and work with access to a
robust broadband. So something we're excited about. It's a lot
of work, and it's a lot of money that we
have to grant out and requires just a lot of
(05:28):
management time, but it'll it's well worth it, and I
would imagine this will go down as the governor is
one of his great accomplishments, you know, when it's all
said and done.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, the broadband really does bring the Internet and everything
else to you.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
It does.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
You're out out there in the middle of nowhere. Here
you go Wow, I've got the broadband.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
It really does well.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
And you know, I was I was visiting one rural
county last year and I met a individual from the
Northeast that moved to Tennessee during COVID primarily to get
out of the city and had young kids and wanted
them in school. And he was He showed us he
had his whole half of his house was basically his office,
(06:11):
and he had big monitors up and he was a
hedge fund trader type in the in the in the
financial services business.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
He said, I can do.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
It all right here thanks to high speed internet broadband.
I can do it all right here in my house.
And that could have not been done two years prior.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
That is amazing. And Tennessee has recently received the Digital
Opportunity Plans in t a approval, right, And what does
that do with.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Well, I think it's just an addition to the overall
program itself. Is you've got dollars that go toward construction.
You know, that goes to the utilities to build it
out the infrastructure itself, and that's the majority of the cost.
But we also have dollars that really provide what we
call technical assistance that could be you know, again bringing
(06:58):
education around the use of broadband.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
It's a work for there's a workforce component to it.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
So these are dollars we knew would come to us,
and we are asked to use these dollars in a
different way. But it's all toward, you know, building a
robust broadband that work and providing partners across the state
the tools they need to make sure that it's implemented
successfully and utilized successfully.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
That's going to really brings partnerships to together. But these
these little companies, these small companies out in the hinterlands
of Tennessee. It really it just brings them, speeds them
up more.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
It does.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
It doesn't brings them back. He cooks them into you.
It's just it changes them.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
It does. It changes them.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
And what we've also noticed, of all these projects that
I mentioned earlier, about half of those have gone to
Rule Tennessee. So we're placing these projects and they're not
just happening right here in Nashville or Chattanooga and Knoxville
or Memphis. It's happening everywhere in between. And part of
the the atrain action of the industry and these companies
(08:02):
that are choosing to call Tennessee home. Is having access
to things like broadband they won for their business. But two,
as they think about workforce and attracting and retaining workforce,
they want to make sure that these are the kinds
of essential services that are provided in those communities so
that they can, you know, have access to that workforce.
Because ultimately, everything that we do and you said you
(08:22):
had met with Commissioner Thomas, I mean, we're we're working
hard to make sure that we're providing a workforce already,
workforce is skilled workforce.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, we did have her in here today and she
talked about you. She spoke highly of you, and.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I'm glad she is. She's the best. I love I
love her. We're very fortunate to have for her our commissioner.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
She she talked about the things that you're doing in
the state and it helps her because she can then
go out and find jobs.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
That's right, That's right. We're a good tag team. You know.
We work also closely with our the.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Higher Education commission UH and you know, our partnership with
the technical schools, the community colleges, and the four year
institutions of higher education along with workforce is you know,
it's a great trio of agencies that are working really
hard to make sure that we're in the best place
possible for workforce development.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Much new in your line of work, Now, what are
you working on now?
Speaker 3 (09:19):
So we're really looking at how the state has done
such a great job in the manufacturing industry, and we're
a manufacturing rich state. We've got, you know, about a
dozen industry clusters that in some form or fashion or
making things in our state. So they're manufacturing goods and
(09:41):
products in our state and that's been great and it's
providing jobs for families. We have global brands that are
calling Tennessee home. And these global brands, we have found
are always spending their dollars in research and development to
improve processes or products. And so we're we're we're working
closely with industry to figure out how we can provide
(10:06):
the supports and the partnerships to them so they can
be spending their R and D dollars in our state.
So what that means is, you know, we have again
we have institutions of higher education that's doing world class research.
We have of Gridge National Labs. We have Arnold Air
Force Base in Tullahoma. We have these assets here with
(10:27):
researchers that are looking to partner in industry. So we
have put together programming in grants, some grant dollars, but
also ultimately we have the ability as an agency to
convene industry and research and development assets together to discuss
how they can partner. So that's a big opportunity for us.
(10:48):
We've done studies, you know, we do a lot of
things in Tennessee really well. One of the areas that
we have an opportunity to grow and improve on is
getting those R and D dollars that spend to increase
in our state. We compete with Georgia and North Carolina, Ohio,
many other states and they're all doing better than Tennessee
right now in that regard. And when we look across
(11:09):
the brands that are in Tennessee, uh, you know, the
question is what are you doing with your research and
development dollar spend and how can we attract those dollars
in our state. Not only does it you know, provide uh,
you know, R and D opportunities for these institutions, but
also you know, it's a high paying jobs and we
want more of those R and D jobs coming to
(11:30):
our state because we believe we have the environment for that.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
How do you get those jobs that come to your state.
You look at a Georgia and North Carolina and so
and so and so and so. How do you say, hey,
you need to come to Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, well do that.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
It's uh, you know, the the brand is strong the state.
The state speaks for itself. I think folks that are
in the business, you know, there there's a there's a
whole world. I didn't really know this until I got
here in this job. There's a there's an entire universe
of what they call site selection consultants, oh and business
development consultants, and they they you know, are retained by
(12:04):
these companies to go and do you know the research
to figure out Okay, here's all our requirements. And these
consultants go out and they start to vet sites and
locations and states and so. Because of all the things
that I think make Tennessee attractive, whether it's you know,
having no income tax, low cost of living, you know,
(12:27):
high quality of life, education, healthcare, you know, all these things.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
We get the call.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
And it typically starts out where you know, you're one
of you know, two states, or you could be one
of ten states and they'll they'll work through this process
and we sort of we have a whole team that
works and comes together and figures out what how to
provide the information to the companies and or consultants, and
so you just you know, you compete, and you know,
(12:55):
typically it'll come down to a handful of things. But
you know, because all these consultants know what makes Tennessee
so strong, but then they're looking for that X factor
somewhere in there, and it depends on the business in
the industry.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
And that's where I think we've We've been able to win.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
A lot of really solid projects for our state, and
I think the X factor at the end of the
day is just the people, the ability for us to
work together get answers to their questions right away. You know,
we're a very welcoming community and we do everything we
can to make sure that we're helping these companies make
those decisions based on some of those other elements that
(13:33):
they don't really think much about. And we hear that's
the feedback we get from them a lot of times.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
How do you work like like take a city like Nashville,
but yet you you have to I just well just
just put things out among the whole state. It maybe
some smaller areas that don't have something and need something there,
write something to build there. How do you how do
you do that?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Well, you know, it's a great question.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
We we typically once we engage in a conversation with
a company, they've already determined to a large degree where
they want to go and there's it's usually driven by
either access to the airport. Okay, you know Nashville Airports
you as you probably know. I mean it has grown
and is continuing to grow tremendously. There's more direct flights
(14:21):
now than ever before.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
They're adding more.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
And more dailies and directs. Most companies want to be
within an hour's drive about airport. So you know, Nashville
being where it is logistically plays a big part of
just the Middle Tennessee growth, not just national itself. But
I'm talking you know, twelve thirteen county MSA that has
really made that a success. But sometimes they'll look at rail,
(14:46):
they'll look at river, interstate access for logistics and so
and then we also in our department, we have a
site selection program that we go in and certify sites
will wor work with communities provide grant dollars. They'll take
a piece of property and basically turn it into shove
already industrial sites, so we can market those sites. And
(15:10):
it can range from you know, ten acres to you know,
well over one hundred and two hundred acres, just depending
on the company's needs.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
So we can provide that. But in a lot of.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Outside of all of those other components, it does come
down the workforce and where businesses know that they can
get access to a workforce, that's that's going to play
an important part.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yeah, well that's true.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Where you have busy cities, you have sirens.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Yeah, sun is a big city. Yeah right, that's right.
And in cities you look at all the cities in Tennessee,
you know, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis too, you have those two
those are extra city. Can you talk some about that
like Memphis for example, Sure, what do they look for
in Memphis?
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Well, Memphis has you know, that's a logistics hub. It's
got the river and the airport. Ft X you know
is you know one of the great success stories of Tennessee.
You know, started founding right here in Tennessee because of
its logistics capacity.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
A lot of companies based their business decisions.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
On being able to move product right out of Memphis,
you know. And of course you've got the river and
the ports there as well, and so it you know,
and there's you know, what's interesting with Memphis is you
have not only is it it's not just it's in
Tennessee obviously, but you have Arkansas and Mississippi within that region.
And you know, there is a workforce that's available that
(16:35):
typically you wouldn't see in other parts of our state.
You know, it's hard for us to incentivize a company
if they're going to hire people from Mississippi.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
We want we want them to hire Tennessee and right.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
But there is that component, you know, and I think
sometimes often the companies will look for that as part
of the Memphis value proposition. But logistics is ultimately, I
think one of their greatest assets is part of you know,
any decision that's made by these companies coming into the region.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Where broadband helped some of the smaller areas become more
more thriving and bigger like this tract business.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Absolutely, and we've seen some of our fastest growing communities
in our state are are the ones that are outside
of those metropolitan areas. I mean Clarksville, Tennessee, which is
not rural per se, but certainly a city that has
has had tremendous growth and the ripple effect outside of
that county and contiguous counties I think is a result
(17:38):
they're seeing the growth as well. Broadband is certainly needed
for not only families to move to the region, but
for businesses to locate and be part of their growth. Cleveland, Tennessee,
is another growing communities just outside of Chattanooga. We've had
more We've had probably more projects announced and landed in
Bradley County, which is Cleveland, over the last couple of years.
(18:01):
And again, broadband plays a significant component to that. But
if you're get more rule, you know, if he's about
so in West Tennessee, we have Blue Oval City and
that's where Ford is building the electricity truck and that
is going to change, you know, that's generation changing economic
development that this is impacting, you know, West Tennessee that
(18:22):
has been you know, looking for that for that big opportunity.
And what's great about Blue Level City it's not just
Ford and the battery manufacturing, it's all the suppliers. We've
landed a lot of Tier one suppliers in the region.
There's Tier two's and beyond you know, sort of the
entire uh supplier network that is going to be close
(18:44):
to the customers. So it's changing, you know, over time,
it's going to change many of those counties and communities.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
For as I say, for generations.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
That's companies that do business with Ford.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
And that'll do business with Ford and then you know,
they'll they'll be this indirect effect as well. There'll be
businesses that will just be there just because there's going
to be people and families moving to the region. There's
just this you know, indirect benefit of other commerce, other
businesses that will you know, be part of that community
to be part of the growth.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Oh yeah, that would be things like restaurants and hotels
and things like that.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
I didn't think about that.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, it'll be in construction jobs.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
I mean it's uh, you know, there's there's studies out
there now that's projecting you know, population growth in West Tennessee,
you know double maybe what they expected initially is continuing
to grow because of Blue Ovale City is just that
big splash in West Tennessee that has now been several
(19:43):
years since we've announced it. You know, Force Forward announced
last I was gonna say last month. I think it's
been more of that now. But they announced that they
were delaying the production of the truck by fifteen to
eighteen months. And that's a function of just supply and demand.
Has really nothing to do with the project itself or Tennessee.
(20:04):
It's just the supply and demand of electric vehicles. But
the great news is they're still building the plant and
there's still these other businesses are still making the decisions
to locate in West Tennessee and be part of that
overall lift that's happening in our part of a state.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
That's great. That's great. That is I want to ask
you about around Urano Orano Ordo.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Yeah, Arano was announced a couple months ago. We're very excited.
It's a French based business, very large company out of
out of France and this particular project landed in Oak Ridge, Tennessee,
and it's a uranium enrichment facility that Orano will be building,
multi multi billion dollar project.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Very excited.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
We believe when it's all said and done, they'll probably
invest more and hire more people when it you know,
when they're when they're completed. But this all fits into
what the governor set forth a few years ago go
to put Tennessee in the best position for nuclear energy growth,
and we have.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
He did two things.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
One he set aside state dollars to invest and provide
incentives to companies like Aurano to build facilities in the
nuclear ecosystem in our state. It also will go toward
workforce development in the nuclear energy sector. And this whole
all of this goes back to the governor's belief that
nuclear is the future of energy.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
It's clean, it's.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Reliable, and as you think about the technologies that are
coming forth in nuclear energy and what's known as the
modular reactors, microreactors, all of these new technologies.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
That will allow for.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Nuclear energy to be produced at a more efficient, cost efficient,
cost effective way, that's where we want to be. And
he's thinking twenty thirty forty years from now in what
the state will look like.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
From two perspectives.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
One is, you know, from his perspective, if it's certainly
a national security issue as we think about what's going
on geopolitically right now, but it's also just to address
how are we as a state in TVA Tennessee Value
shorty as our energy partners. The question is how will
we be addressing the demand of energy across the state
(22:21):
as we grow as a population, as the needs grow,
as businesses and industry grow. I mean, we're looking at
some of these manufacturing plants that are coming in that
are much more advanced than their manufacturing. So they're using
robotics which require more energy. Fewer people, but more more
investment into the robotics, into the advanced manufacturing that requires
(22:42):
this energy usage. And then you have projects like Xai
and Memphis that Elon Musk is doing that requires These
are big data centers that requires an enormous amount of energy.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
And if we're going to be.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Competitive, and if we're going to continue to think about
how we onshore industry, the need for power reliable UH
and cost effective powers always going to be the big question.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
So what are we doing today to affect that?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
And that's where this is coming from. So Irono comes
to our state. They could have gone anywhere they were
looking at the United States. They were looking in you know,
basically North America, and they chose Tennessee UH to do
this massive investment.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
We had the t V A in here yesterday, good yea,
And they talked about they didn't they say erno. They
talked about the need, the need to grow more to
be ready for things.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
That's right. That's right.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
And they're looking at you know, TVA is a great
part of ours. We're very fortunate to have tv A
here in our state, and they're looking at this thing.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
At the end of the day, they're the ones that
are going to make these decisions.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
I mean, it's it's in their strategy, strategic plan to
make sure that these things that are really important economic
development are getting addressed. And they're our partner and we've
we we've we have great relationship with them. And you know,
the first call that we get when a project comes
to us is the tv A.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Okay, here's the profile.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
And we need you guys to jump on this and
start assessing it from an energy perspective and a power
usage perspective and guide us to make sure that we
are all on the same page before we can commit
to anything to these companies.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
So so you know, you look at these companies and
we look at nash Feld's growing and Memphis and everything's
going and growing and growing. But you've got to have
the electricity for them, So that's one thing you have
to look at.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
You do.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
And you know, again, these some of these projects that
are coming in historically have not had the power requirement
that they do today. And and a lot of it
is a function of the amount of automation that's required,
whether it's manufacturing or whether it's some of these data
(24:48):
centers now data centers. You know, there is a push
across the country to locate these data centers in the
United States. They don't don't bring a lot of jobs,
you know, with them. It's a lot of equipment and
a lot of space that's required, but the job the jobs.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Don't really don't show up for something like that.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
So it's it's difficult for us because we incentivize our
projects based on net new jobs, but their cap X
is off the charts. So you know, we what we're
what we're looking at as you how do you what's
the balance between that cap X because that's you know,
those that's tax.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Revenue for the locals, that's great revenue.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
For them, not a lot of jobs. But the jobs
that do come in are high paying, high quality, high
paying jobs. So we're we're you know, looking at what
the right balance is going forward as we see this,
and this isn't just happening in Tennessee. I was with
just two weeks ago. I was at a conference among
Southern states and all of the commissioners, my peer group
(25:54):
were there and we all had time to kind of
compare notes, and we're all seeing the same thing. What's
interesting in the Southeast is all the states that touch
Tennessee are all doing well economically, but from an economic
development perspective, all the things we've been talking about, they're
seeing the sure thing. We compete, but we also sort
(26:15):
of high five and share wins together too, because even
we may compete with South Carolina on something and if
they win, we know that more than likely we're still
going to benefit from from whatever project. There may be
a supplier that comes in, they're going to locate in
Tennessee and vice versa.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
But but they're all seeing the same thing.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
A lot of CAPEX, fewer jobs, you know, highly automated,
a lot of power required. Now other states have different
power providers, Like in South Carolina they got Duke Power,
you know, Alabama Power in Alabama. You got Georgia Power
in Georgia. Florida's got there, you know. So there's they
all have their different power partners. TVA is ours, which
(26:55):
is unique because it's a federal agency, very different from
some of these other companies. There are publicly traded companies,
but they're all facing we're all facing the same sort
of trends and challenges and opportunities.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I'll say, you do it. You keep up with you
have to keep up with everything, and you really do, really.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Do you do?
Speaker 3 (27:14):
And I had so I was I was a Commissioner
of Finance first, and that basically is over the budget
and so the governor.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
I was with the governor every day for two years.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
And you know, when you're when you're over the budget,
you see it all and you can see how some
of these agencies work together. And so having that experience
and then coming back into this was a great training
ground and it gives me a different perspective and appreciation
for state government and all the pieces and parts that
work together.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I think you talked about it a minute ago. How
many people do you have working your department? One hundred,
one hundred, one hundred people do that's pretty good?
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Yeah, we have one hundred people driving you know, economic development.
But of course it's a it's a team, it's a
team effort. I mean, we have ninety five counties in
our state. Every county has a commerce Chamber of Commerce.
It's got you know, development boards. They've got eight you
know groups partners, economic development partners scattered across the state.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
And ultimately all the work that.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
We do is a result of the great local partners
we have, and we can't do it without them. They're
they're the boots on the ground, as I say, and
they give us the intel on the ground and lets
us sort of bring it back to Nashville and work
the Governor's office to figure.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Out how we can move forward.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
But yeah, we I think when Bill Haggerty, who was
he had this job back in twenty ten. He was
the commission of Economic Development for Bill Haslam, and I
think he took the department from three hundred plus to
you know, one hundred during his time and just really
sort of you know, he just re re engineered and
(28:49):
restructured the agency. And we really the things that we're
doing today were the things that he put in place
back then.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Where should the listeners go to find out about you?
Speaker 3 (28:58):
So our best T N E C D dot Com
is our website. It's a very forward facing, more commercialized
website talks about all the things that we do, all
the programming, all the sites, and it's one that we
keep constantly updated because we're always moving and changing and
(29:18):
we like, as we say, we like to move at
the speed of business, and that's what we try to
do in state government, least with our department.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
There you go, well, thank you so much for coming in.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
This is good a pleasure. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Thanks too much. Yes, sir, that's stru at mcwater, Commission
of Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. You can
find out more about them at t n e c
D dot com. For questions of comments about today's program,
you can email me, John Clark at iHeartMedia dot com.
Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you next week right
here on your local radio station, Tennessee Matters
It's Tennessee Matters on the Tennessee Radio Network. Welcome to
Tennessee Matters. I'm John Clark in the Tennessee Radio Network.
In Tennessee. It's no accident that some of the biggest
and most respected brands in the world have chosen Tennessee
to call their home. Companies who come to Tennessee are
not just looking for a place to do business. They're
(00:21):
looking for a home. Tennessee's reputation for the quality of
their work and the quality of Tennessee lifestyle means more.
Today we're going to talk with Strip mcwater. He's the
commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
It's good to be here. And and if we have
we talk about economic development. And while we're while we're
talking about it, there's progress in the background.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yes, y'all are building who we are building.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
We love to see construction happening in our state, right
here in Nashville in particular.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Right right, that's true. As we're here at iHeart in Nashville,
and we are we are we're just talking about that.
As we started to show about these men are putting
the building.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
The building building. But yeah, we should.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I should probably do all of my interviews around construction
sites because that's just kind of it's a it's a
signal to what we do.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yeah, sure, it really is.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
And and to that, what's going on, what's the latest
with what with building in Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, well, it's great to be here. Appreciate the opportunity
to speak and share about what's happening. You know, we're
we're very passionate about what we do here in Tennessee.
Our department, I got one hundred people that were going
to work every day.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You know, to further the mission of economic development.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
We uh, yeah, I think we've had a remarkable six
years with Governor Lee. He's at the end of this year,
we'll have completed six years, so he's halfway through his
second term, and we've just had a you know, remarkable run.
We've had over well over five hundred projects announced from
(01:56):
our department. We're almost at We're just a few hundred
jobs away, net new jobs away from one hundred thousand
net new jobs during that period of time and just
over forty billion dollars of capital investment from those five
hundred plus jobs.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So it's been. It's been a great six years.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
And you know, always have to recognize those that led
before us that really set this up for success, whether
it was Governor Bill Haslam, Governor Phil Bredesen, you know,
many many decades of great leadership we've had in this state,
with a great legislature that supports.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
The work that we do. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Sure, and you know, it's just an exciting time to
be in Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
It really is. And we look out now, I mean
look right here where we are, right in Nashville. We've
seen it grow over the last few years. It's really grown.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
It has, especially in Nashville. I mean, Nashville is the
one of the fastest growing cities in the country. There
are folks that move here from all over you know,
the US.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
From all over the world, quite frankly.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
And you know, we've had a lot of success attracting
international companies to our state, not just here at Nashville,
but to the state of Tennessee. But yeah, Nashville's I've
been here thirty years and I have seen it grow
quite a bit. And I love I love this location.
You're right here on Broadway looking out over Coming Station,
the Gults, and what a.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Great, what a great view it is.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It is well, I know one area is this for
all of rural Tennessee is broadband. That's been really that's
been big. Senator Blackburn helped out with that. We talk
about that some.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Sure, Well we started I can I can go back
a little bit more when I was the Commissioner of
financi and Administration. This was when the governor first came
into office. The only source of capital we had available
to invest in broadband was through the state's funding and
at that time we were allocating ten to fifteen million
(03:58):
a year with the support of the legist and so
the federal government stepped in. You know, I guess it
was right around there. May be right pre COVID, but
certainly during COVID, and had a federal program to really
put more fuel of the fire on on internet and
broadband access across you know, the US, and as the
(04:21):
United States continues to grow, particularly Rule America, there was
a need to just build that infrastructure. So we have
received as a state close to almost a billion dollars
now that has been allocated, that has gone through our department,
and we have a team that works very closely with
all of the broadband providers to get these dollars out
(04:43):
and allocated and granted to them so they can get
the work done. And you know what is it's it's
a it's a remarkable program. It's a remarkable effort because
what you're doing is you're literally changing people's lives and
it's a utility that really everybody should have access to.
And when you start talking to folks that live further
out in rural Tennessee in particular, you know they they
(05:07):
have not had that access. And you're talking about how
it helps kids in school, how it helps small businesses,
how it helps even remote workers. You know, you can
almost live anywhere now and work with access to a
robust broadband. So something we're excited about. It's a lot
of work, and it's a lot of money that we
have to grant out and requires just a lot of
(05:28):
management time, but it'll it's well worth it, and I
would imagine this will go down as the governor is
one of his great accomplishments, you know, when it's all
said and done.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, the broadband really does bring the Internet and everything
else to you.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
It does.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
You're out out there in the middle of nowhere. Here
you go Wow, I've got the broadband.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
It really does well.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
And you know, I was I was visiting one rural
county last year and I met a individual from the
Northeast that moved to Tennessee during COVID primarily to get
out of the city and had young kids and wanted
them in school. And he was He showed us he
had his whole half of his house was basically his office,
(06:11):
and he had big monitors up and he was a
hedge fund trader type in the in the in the
financial services business.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
He said, I can do.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
It all right here thanks to high speed internet broadband.
I can do it all right here in my house.
And that could have not been done two years prior.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
That is amazing. And Tennessee has recently received the Digital
Opportunity Plans in t a approval, right, And what does
that do with.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Well, I think it's just an addition to the overall
program itself. Is you've got dollars that go toward construction.
You know, that goes to the utilities to build it
out the infrastructure itself, and that's the majority of the cost.
But we also have dollars that really provide what we
call technical assistance that could be you know, again bringing
(06:58):
education around the use of broadband.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
It's a work for there's a workforce component to it.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
So these are dollars we knew would come to us,
and we are asked to use these dollars in a
different way. But it's all toward, you know, building a
robust broadband that work and providing partners across the state
the tools they need to make sure that it's implemented
successfully and utilized successfully.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
That's going to really brings partnerships to together. But these
these little companies, these small companies out in the hinterlands
of Tennessee. It really it just brings them, speeds them
up more.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
It does.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
It doesn't brings them back. He cooks them into you.
It's just it changes them.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
It does. It changes them.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
And what we've also noticed, of all these projects that
I mentioned earlier, about half of those have gone to
Rule Tennessee. So we're placing these projects and they're not
just happening right here in Nashville or Chattanooga and Knoxville
or Memphis. It's happening everywhere in between. And part of
the the atrain action of the industry and these companies
(08:02):
that are choosing to call Tennessee home. Is having access
to things like broadband they won for their business. But two,
as they think about workforce and attracting and retaining workforce,
they want to make sure that these are the kinds
of essential services that are provided in those communities so
that they can, you know, have access to that workforce.
Because ultimately, everything that we do and you said you
(08:22):
had met with Commissioner Thomas, I mean, we're we're working
hard to make sure that we're providing a workforce already,
workforce is skilled workforce.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, we did have her in here today and she
talked about you. She spoke highly of you, and.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I'm glad she is. She's the best. I love I
love her. We're very fortunate to have for her our commissioner.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
She she talked about the things that you're doing in
the state and it helps her because she can then
go out and find jobs.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
That's right, That's right. We're a good tag team. You know.
We work also closely with our the.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Higher Education commission UH and you know, our partnership with
the technical schools, the community colleges, and the four year
institutions of higher education along with workforce is you know,
it's a great trio of agencies that are working really
hard to make sure that we're in the best place
possible for workforce development.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Much new in your line of work, Now, what are
you working on now?
Speaker 3 (09:19):
So we're really looking at how the state has done
such a great job in the manufacturing industry, and we're
a manufacturing rich state. We've got, you know, about a
dozen industry clusters that in some form or fashion or
making things in our state. So they're manufacturing goods and
(09:41):
products in our state and that's been great and it's
providing jobs for families. We have global brands that are
calling Tennessee home. And these global brands, we have found
are always spending their dollars in research and development to
improve processes or products. And so we're we're we're working
closely with industry to figure out how we can provide
(10:06):
the supports and the partnerships to them so they can
be spending their R and D dollars in our state.
So what that means is, you know, we have again
we have institutions of higher education that's doing world class research.
We have of Gridge National Labs. We have Arnold Air
Force Base in Tullahoma. We have these assets here with
(10:27):
researchers that are looking to partner in industry. So we
have put together programming in grants, some grant dollars, but
also ultimately we have the ability as an agency to
convene industry and research and development assets together to discuss
how they can partner. So that's a big opportunity for us.
(10:48):
We've done studies, you know, we do a lot of
things in Tennessee really well. One of the areas that
we have an opportunity to grow and improve on is
getting those R and D dollars that spend to increase
in our state. We compete with Georgia and North Carolina, Ohio,
many other states and they're all doing better than Tennessee
right now in that regard. And when we look across
(11:09):
the brands that are in Tennessee, uh, you know, the
question is what are you doing with your research and
development dollar spend and how can we attract those dollars
in our state. Not only does it you know, provide uh,
you know, R and D opportunities for these institutions, but
also you know, it's a high paying jobs and we
want more of those R and D jobs coming to
(11:30):
our state because we believe we have the environment for that.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
How do you get those jobs that come to your state.
You look at a Georgia and North Carolina and so
and so and so and so. How do you say, hey,
you need to come to Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, well do that.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
It's uh, you know, the the brand is strong the state.
The state speaks for itself. I think folks that are
in the business, you know, there there's a there's a
whole world. I didn't really know this until I got
here in this job. There's a there's an entire universe
of what they call site selection consultants, oh and business
development consultants, and they they you know, are retained by
(12:04):
these companies to go and do you know the research
to figure out Okay, here's all our requirements. And these
consultants go out and they start to vet sites and
locations and states and so. Because of all the things
that I think make Tennessee attractive, whether it's you know,
having no income tax, low cost of living, you know,
(12:27):
high quality of life, education, healthcare, you know, all these things.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
We get the call.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
And it typically starts out where you know, you're one
of you know, two states, or you could be one
of ten states and they'll they'll work through this process
and we sort of we have a whole team that
works and comes together and figures out what how to
provide the information to the companies and or consultants, and
so you just you know, you compete, and you know,
(12:55):
typically it'll come down to a handful of things. But
you know, because all these consultants know what makes Tennessee
so strong, but then they're looking for that X factor
somewhere in there, and it depends on the business in
the industry.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
And that's where I think we've We've been able to win.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
A lot of really solid projects for our state, and
I think the X factor at the end of the
day is just the people, the ability for us to
work together get answers to their questions right away. You know,
we're a very welcoming community and we do everything we
can to make sure that we're helping these companies make
those decisions based on some of those other elements that
(13:33):
they don't really think much about. And we hear that's
the feedback we get from them a lot of times.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
How do you work like like take a city like Nashville,
but yet you you have to I just well just
just put things out among the whole state. It maybe
some smaller areas that don't have something and need something there,
write something to build there. How do you how do
you do that?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Well, you know, it's a great question.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
We we typically once we engage in a conversation with
a company, they've already determined to a large degree where
they want to go and there's it's usually driven by
either access to the airport. Okay, you know Nashville Airports
you as you probably know. I mean it has grown
and is continuing to grow tremendously. There's more direct flights
(14:21):
now than ever before.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
They're adding more.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
And more dailies and directs. Most companies want to be
within an hour's drive about airport. So you know, Nashville
being where it is logistically plays a big part of
just the Middle Tennessee growth, not just national itself. But
I'm talking you know, twelve thirteen county MSA that has
really made that a success. But sometimes they'll look at rail,
(14:46):
they'll look at river, interstate access for logistics and so
and then we also in our department, we have a
site selection program that we go in and certify sites
will wor work with communities provide grant dollars. They'll take
a piece of property and basically turn it into shove
already industrial sites, so we can market those sites. And
(15:10):
it can range from you know, ten acres to you know,
well over one hundred and two hundred acres, just depending
on the company's needs.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
So we can provide that. But in a lot of.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Outside of all of those other components, it does come
down the workforce and where businesses know that they can
get access to a workforce, that's that's going to play
an important part.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yeah, well that's true.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Where you have busy cities, you have sirens.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Yeah, sun is a big city. Yeah right, that's right.
And in cities you look at all the cities in Tennessee,
you know, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis too, you have those two
those are extra city. Can you talk some about that
like Memphis for example, Sure, what do they look for
in Memphis?
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Well, Memphis has you know, that's a logistics hub. It's
got the river and the airport. Ft X you know
is you know one of the great success stories of Tennessee.
You know, started founding right here in Tennessee because of
its logistics capacity.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
A lot of companies based their business decisions.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
On being able to move product right out of Memphis,
you know. And of course you've got the river and
the ports there as well, and so it you know,
and there's you know, what's interesting with Memphis is you
have not only is it it's not just it's in
Tennessee obviously, but you have Arkansas and Mississippi within that region.
And you know, there is a workforce that's available that
(16:35):
typically you wouldn't see in other parts of our state.
You know, it's hard for us to incentivize a company
if they're going to hire people from Mississippi.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
We want we want them to hire Tennessee and right.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
But there is that component, you know, and I think
sometimes often the companies will look for that as part
of the Memphis value proposition. But logistics is ultimately, I
think one of their greatest assets is part of you know,
any decision that's made by these companies coming into the region.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Where broadband helped some of the smaller areas become more
more thriving and bigger like this tract business.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Absolutely, and we've seen some of our fastest growing communities
in our state are are the ones that are outside
of those metropolitan areas. I mean Clarksville, Tennessee, which is
not rural per se, but certainly a city that has
has had tremendous growth and the ripple effect outside of
that county and contiguous counties I think is a result
(17:38):
they're seeing the growth as well. Broadband is certainly needed
for not only families to move to the region, but
for businesses to locate and be part of their growth. Cleveland, Tennessee,
is another growing communities just outside of Chattanooga. We've had
more We've had probably more projects announced and landed in
Bradley County, which is Cleveland, over the last couple of years.
(18:01):
And again, broadband plays a significant component to that. But
if you're get more rule, you know, if he's about
so in West Tennessee, we have Blue Oval City and
that's where Ford is building the electricity truck and that
is going to change, you know, that's generation changing economic
development that this is impacting, you know, West Tennessee that
(18:22):
has been you know, looking for that for that big opportunity.
And what's great about Blue Level City it's not just
Ford and the battery manufacturing, it's all the suppliers. We've
landed a lot of Tier one suppliers in the region.
There's Tier two's and beyond you know, sort of the
entire uh supplier network that is going to be close
(18:44):
to the customers. So it's changing, you know, over time,
it's going to change many of those counties and communities.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
For as I say, for generations.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
That's companies that do business with Ford.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
And that'll do business with Ford and then you know,
they'll they'll be this indirect effect as well. There'll be
businesses that will just be there just because there's going
to be people and families moving to the region. There's
just this you know, indirect benefit of other commerce, other
businesses that will you know, be part of that community
to be part of the growth.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Oh yeah, that would be things like restaurants and hotels
and things like that.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
I didn't think about that.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, it'll be in construction jobs.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
I mean it's uh, you know, there's there's studies out
there now that's projecting you know, population growth in West Tennessee,
you know double maybe what they expected initially is continuing
to grow because of Blue Ovale City is just that
big splash in West Tennessee that has now been several
(19:43):
years since we've announced it. You know, Force Forward announced
last I was gonna say last month. I think it's
been more of that now. But they announced that they
were delaying the production of the truck by fifteen to
eighteen months. And that's a function of just supply and demand.
Has really nothing to do with the project itself or Tennessee.
(20:04):
It's just the supply and demand of electric vehicles. But
the great news is they're still building the plant and
there's still these other businesses are still making the decisions
to locate in West Tennessee and be part of that
overall lift that's happening in our part of a state.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
That's great. That's great. That is I want to ask
you about around Urano Orano Ordo.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Yeah, Arano was announced a couple months ago. We're very excited.
It's a French based business, very large company out of
out of France and this particular project landed in Oak Ridge, Tennessee,
and it's a uranium enrichment facility that Orano will be building,
multi multi billion dollar project.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Very excited.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
We believe when it's all said and done, they'll probably
invest more and hire more people when it you know,
when they're when they're completed. But this all fits into
what the governor set forth a few years ago go
to put Tennessee in the best position for nuclear energy growth,
and we have.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
He did two things.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
One he set aside state dollars to invest and provide
incentives to companies like Aurano to build facilities in the
nuclear ecosystem in our state. It also will go toward
workforce development in the nuclear energy sector. And this whole
all of this goes back to the governor's belief that
nuclear is the future of energy.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
It's clean, it's.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Reliable, and as you think about the technologies that are
coming forth in nuclear energy and what's known as the
modular reactors, microreactors, all of these new technologies.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
That will allow for.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Nuclear energy to be produced at a more efficient, cost efficient,
cost effective way, that's where we want to be. And
he's thinking twenty thirty forty years from now in what
the state will look like.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
From two perspectives.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
One is, you know, from his perspective, if it's certainly
a national security issue as we think about what's going
on geopolitically right now, but it's also just to address
how are we as a state in TVA Tennessee Value
shorty as our energy partners. The question is how will
we be addressing the demand of energy across the state
(22:21):
as we grow as a population, as the needs grow,
as businesses and industry grow. I mean, we're looking at
some of these manufacturing plants that are coming in that
are much more advanced than their manufacturing. So they're using
robotics which require more energy. Fewer people, but more more
investment into the robotics, into the advanced manufacturing that requires
(22:42):
this energy usage. And then you have projects like Xai
and Memphis that Elon Musk is doing that requires These
are big data centers that requires an enormous amount of energy.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
And if we're going to be.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Competitive, and if we're going to continue to think about
how we onshore industry, the need for power reliable UH
and cost effective powers always going to be the big question.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
So what are we doing today to affect that?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
And that's where this is coming from. So Irono comes
to our state. They could have gone anywhere they were
looking at the United States. They were looking in you know,
basically North America, and they chose Tennessee UH to do
this massive investment.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
We had the t V A in here yesterday, good yea,
And they talked about they didn't they say erno. They
talked about the need, the need to grow more to
be ready for things.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
That's right. That's right.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
And they're looking at you know, TVA is a great
part of ours. We're very fortunate to have tv A
here in our state, and they're looking at this thing.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
At the end of the day, they're the ones that
are going to make these decisions.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
I mean, it's it's in their strategy, strategic plan to
make sure that these things that are really important economic
development are getting addressed. And they're our partner and we've
we we've we have great relationship with them. And you know,
the first call that we get when a project comes
to us is the tv A.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Okay, here's the profile.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
And we need you guys to jump on this and
start assessing it from an energy perspective and a power
usage perspective and guide us to make sure that we
are all on the same page before we can commit
to anything to these companies.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
So so you know, you look at these companies and
we look at nash Feld's growing and Memphis and everything's
going and growing and growing. But you've got to have
the electricity for them, So that's one thing you have
to look at.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
You do.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
And you know, again, these some of these projects that
are coming in historically have not had the power requirement
that they do today. And and a lot of it
is a function of the amount of automation that's required,
whether it's manufacturing or whether it's some of these data
(24:48):
centers now data centers. You know, there is a push
across the country to locate these data centers in the
United States. They don't don't bring a lot of jobs,
you know, with them. It's a lot of equipment and
a lot of space that's required, but the job the jobs.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Don't really don't show up for something like that.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
So it's it's difficult for us because we incentivize our
projects based on net new jobs, but their cap X
is off the charts. So you know, we what we're
what we're looking at as you how do you what's
the balance between that cap X because that's you know,
those that's tax.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Revenue for the locals, that's great revenue.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
For them, not a lot of jobs. But the jobs
that do come in are high paying, high quality, high
paying jobs. So we're we're you know, looking at what
the right balance is going forward as we see this,
and this isn't just happening in Tennessee. I was with
just two weeks ago. I was at a conference among
Southern states and all of the commissioners, my peer group
(25:54):
were there and we all had time to kind of
compare notes, and we're all seeing the same thing. What's
interesting in the Southeast is all the states that touch
Tennessee are all doing well economically, but from an economic
development perspective, all the things we've been talking about, they're
seeing the sure thing. We compete, but we also sort
(26:15):
of high five and share wins together too, because even
we may compete with South Carolina on something and if
they win, we know that more than likely we're still
going to benefit from from whatever project. There may be
a supplier that comes in, they're going to locate in
Tennessee and vice versa.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
But but they're all seeing the same thing.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
A lot of CAPEX, fewer jobs, you know, highly automated,
a lot of power required. Now other states have different
power providers, Like in South Carolina they got Duke Power,
you know, Alabama Power in Alabama. You got Georgia Power
in Georgia. Florida's got there, you know. So there's they
all have their different power partners. TVA is ours, which
(26:55):
is unique because it's a federal agency, very different from
some of these other companies. There are publicly traded companies,
but they're all facing we're all facing the same sort
of trends and challenges and opportunities.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I'll say, you do it. You keep up with you
have to keep up with everything, and you really do, really.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Do you do?
Speaker 3 (27:14):
And I had so I was I was a Commissioner
of Finance first, and that basically is over the budget
and so the governor.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
I was with the governor every day for two years.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
And you know, when you're when you're over the budget,
you see it all and you can see how some
of these agencies work together. And so having that experience
and then coming back into this was a great training
ground and it gives me a different perspective and appreciation
for state government and all the pieces and parts that
work together.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I think you talked about it a minute ago. How
many people do you have working your department? One hundred,
one hundred, one hundred people do that's pretty good?
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Yeah, we have one hundred people driving you know, economic development.
But of course it's a it's a team, it's a
team effort. I mean, we have ninety five counties in
our state. Every county has a commerce Chamber of Commerce.
It's got you know, development boards. They've got eight you
know groups partners, economic development partners scattered across the state.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
And ultimately all the work that.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
We do is a result of the great local partners
we have, and we can't do it without them. They're
they're the boots on the ground, as I say, and
they give us the intel on the ground and lets
us sort of bring it back to Nashville and work
the Governor's office to figure.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Out how we can move forward.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
But yeah, we I think when Bill Haggerty, who was
he had this job back in twenty ten. He was
the commission of Economic Development for Bill Haslam, and I
think he took the department from three hundred plus to
you know, one hundred during his time and just really
sort of you know, he just re re engineered and
(28:49):
restructured the agency. And we really the things that we're
doing today were the things that he put in place
back then.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Where should the listeners go to find out about you?
Speaker 3 (28:58):
So our best T N E C D dot Com
is our website. It's a very forward facing, more commercialized
website talks about all the things that we do, all
the programming, all the sites, and it's one that we
keep constantly updated because we're always moving and changing and
(29:18):
we like, as we say, we like to move at
the speed of business, and that's what we try to
do in state government, least with our department.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
There you go, well, thank you so much for coming in.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
This is good a pleasure. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Thanks too much. Yes, sir, that's stru at mcwater, Commission
of Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. You can
find out more about them at t n e c
D dot com. For questions of comments about today's program,
you can email me, John Clark at iHeartMedia dot com.
Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you next week right
here on your local radio station, Tennessee Matters
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