Mississippi taxpayers are footing the bill for airfare for corporations sending employees to workforce training as part of incentive packages.
Continental Tire will receive more than $263 million in bond money for construction and infrastructure for building the plant in Clinton that will employ 2,500 by 2028. One part of those incentives — in addition to building a training center, infrastructure improvements such as a dedicated road to the production facility and other facilities was to compensate the company for travel for its employees for training purposes.
According to the memorandum of understanding between the state and Continental Tire, Hinds Community College will reimburse the company for $3.465 million for training and travel-related expenses. The company also received $1 million for travel, relocation, training and other costs before the Clinton plant, which manufactures truck tires, started production last year.
“Workforce training funds that are part of the overall incentive package the state committed to Continental can be used to fly employees to its headquarters in Germany to be trained to work at the company’s facility in Hinds County,” said Tammy Craft, the senior public relations specialist at the Mississippi Development Authority.
Finding figures on the breakdown of individual numbers for the $3.465 million is a tougher chore.
Cathy Hayden is the public relations director at Hinds Community College. When asked via email about how much the school had paid for airfare each year for Continental employees since the plant’s construction began, she said “I work at Hinds Community College. I don’t work at Continental.” A follow up email was not answered.
In addition to the bond money, Continental will receive a 25-year income tax exemption and breaks on both property taxes and the state’s corporate franchise tax. Continental’s corporate franchise tax will be capped at $25,000 per year. Typically, the tax is levied at a rate of $2.50 per $1,000 of capital or property, whichever is greater.
In February 2016, it took the Mississippi Legislature only five hours and minimal debate to approve a $274 million bond issue to finance the incentive package for Continental Tire (known at the time as Project Potter) and a Gulfport shipyard for Topship, a subsidiary of Louisiana-based Edison Chouest Offshore. The shipyard project was code named Project Crawfish.
The shipyard was unable to meet the requirements in its memorandum of understanding with the MDA and the project was scrapped in December 2018 without the expenditure of state funds.
Continental isn’t the only company in Mississippi receiving taxpayer funds to pay for travel for employees for training purposes.
The Workforce Training Fund administered by the MDA provides grants to companies to offset training needs not met through the state’s network of community colleges and job centers. These funds can be used for travel expenses for employees who need to be trained out of state.
The funds are awarded directly to community colleges, local workforce areas and the state’s universities to provide training for the employees of eligible companies that have relocated to Mississippi.
According to the MDA’s most recent incentive report, Yokohama Tire, which built a plant in West Point, received $600,000 in 2013 for these expenses and $200,000 the next year. Nissan received $105,000 from the program over a two-year span.
According to the state’s 2019 comprehensive financial report, taxpayers have incurred $8 million in bond debt to pay for the workforce training grant program, with $3.772 million outstanding that is due by December 2026.
