Letter to the Editor

Big River Steel not a savior for county

Thursday, March 28, 2013

To the editor:

In the discussion about the "Big Ripoff Steel" mill being considered for Osceola there are several points that I have noticed in the recent articles. The politicians in favor of "giving" away about $90 MILLION dollars of taxpayer money ($75 million state grant and about $14 million county) seem to have their minds made up that this is a good investment and a better opportunity for kickbacks. They don't want to consider any facts that disparage the project and, further, don't seem to be inclined to listen to the opposition. Just look at what an improvement the current steel mill has had on Blytheville: Schools closing, homes being built at the rate of two or three a year, sales tax at 10.25 percent (soon to be 10.75percent)!

On the other hand, John Correnti seems to think the state GIVING him $75 million and loaning him another $50 million on favorable terms is good business. To me, this indicates Mike Beebe is retiring due to term limits and has just found out how piss-poor the state retirement is when compared to his desired lifestyle. If Arkansas is so flush with cash, a better idea would be to invest the money in BR Steel and have very tight restrictions on the "loan" of $125 million and strict terms on how it is to be paid back. Or even better, if investors are knocking down Mr. Correnti's door with $100 million dollar bags of money, let them back the full investment. The Arkansas taxpayers (and especially Mississippi County taxpayers) have taken too many politician schemes in the shorts to put up with another boondoggle like this.

Mr. Correnti did bring up one point that I thought was important to this discussion. He mentioned that people would come from a 250-mile radius for these jobs. The current steel industry employs a lot of out-of-state and out-of-county at this time and, even if the last mayor hadn't blessed the city with a shortage of $2.2 million (plus penalties), our little town is still overtaxed and underserviced. It would be interesting (and probably amazing) if Nucor would publish a summary report of the number of employees from Mississippi County, Ark., versus the numbers from other counties and states. If the people of Mississippi County think someone who lives in Jonesboro or Dyersburg and works here is going to support this county, I have a bridge at Caruthersville I would be willing to sell fairly cheap.

Johnny Hutchinson
Blytheville