Gov. Mike Beebe announces this morning a recipient of tens of millions in state taxpayer assistance in return for location of a major manufacturing facility.
Another steel mill for Mississippi County, perhaps by a steelmaker who’s been here before and pitched a previous project? That’s all the buzz on an Internet chat board that focuses on Northeast Arkansas. Several commenters there are betting on Osceola. Others are skeptical. These rumors focus on John Correnti, the former Nucor steel chief, who’s more recently developed a steel mill with Russian backing in Mississippi.
Legislative approval is necessary to issue bonds to back the project’s startup cost. Nobody really expects any significant opposition to borrowing money to give to a private corporation, though talk of balanced budgets and the perils of government borrowing should resume shortly thereafter among the chattering Republican majority.