taxpayer-screwed

“Si” Brown President and CEO of Bruce Foods in Iberia Parish, an 80-year old LA company, appeared this morning on the Moon Griffon statewide radio show.   (Podcast of the radio show here.)

Brown claims that since 2003 he had plans to build a similar sweet potato processing plant in South Louisiana to the one proposed by ConAgra in North LA near Delhi.   The difference, according to Brown, is that he would have built the plant with incentives from the state at a cost of $8,000 per job ($1 Million) versus the one in North LA at a cost to the state of $104,000 per job ($37 Million).

The only reason Brown’s plant is not already operating is, among other things, our ethically-challenged head of economic development, Stephen Moret “changed the rules” on his company.

Brown also said he has been bogged-down in “red tape” and that the state’s economic development program is too complex, lacks transparency, there are too many state and local agencies involved plus politics.

Brown said he was “blind-sided” by the plans in North LA.   He said it was “not a level playing field” in LA for existing businesses.

Brown said now the state is paying a company to come to LA to compete with his company.

Brown was a member of Jindal’s economic development transition team where he said the consensus was that the state should help existing businesses before considering out-of-state businesses.   Apparently, the state’s economic development program is more efficient in paying businesses to come to LA than helping existing businesses expand.

Something is very wrong.

C.B.