Mississippi Today
In 2023, Reeves limited state business with China. Today, he’s requesting state funds for a Chinese company.
In 2023, Gov. Tate Reeves decried Chinese technology as “an existential threat” and signed bills limiting what business the state of Mississippi could do with China.
In a special session today, he’s asking Mississippi lawmakers to send millions in state taxpayer funds to a Chinese technology company to close an economic development deal.
A China-based technology company is one of four companies that will partner — pending legislative approval of a state incentive package proposed by Reeves — to construct a $1.9 billion Mississippi plant to make an electric battery to power commercial trucks.
READ MORE: Reeves asks lawmakers to appropriate $350 million in state funds to Marshall County EV battery deal
Bill Cork, Reeves’ appointed director of the Mississippi Development Authority, confirmed to members of the Mississippi House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday that three major commercial vehicle companies will each own 30% shares of the company, while the Chinese company, which will provide the technology to manufacture the battery for the commercial vehicles, will own 10%.
Cork gave the presentation in advance of Thursday’s special session called by Reeves, who is asking the Legislature to appropriate around $350 million in state incentives to entice the companies to locate their project in Marshall County near the Tennessee state line.
Cork said he could not divulge the names of the companies involved in the project until after the Legislature passed the incentive package. But upon direct questioning from a Ways and Means member, Cork confirmed the technology provider is a respected Chinese company.
Cork said the Chinese company — which a Jan. 11 article published in trade magazine Transport Topics named as Eve Energy Co. — was needed in the partnership because American companies are not providing similar technology.
The other companies involved in the deal, according to media reports, are Paccar Inc., Cummins Truck Holdings, and Daimler Truck Holdings.
“Every one of you has a cell phone with a battery made in China,” Cork told committee members. No House member raised objections during the meeting.
Upon further questioning from Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, a Republican from Senatobia, Cork said the other three companies would be responsible for repaying the state if their commitments, such as providing 2,000 jobs, are not met. He said the three companies would each be responsible for repaying one-third instead of trying to collect from the Chinese company.
The Reeves administration’s reliance on the Chinese company to close the Marshall County electric battery deal counters recent messaging from the governor. In 2023, lawmakers passed two bills that limited Mississippi’s relationship with China: One that prevented Mississippi state agencies from purchasing small aircraft systems or drones produced by Chinese technology companies, and another that banned the TikTok app from state devices.
In signing the bills last year, Reeves said: “The Chinese Communist Party is not a friend to Mississippi or the United States. They want to exploit vulnerabilities in technology to harm our country and our citizens. We’re not going to let that happen in Mississippi, and that’s why I signed these two bills. It’s time for our country to wake up and recognize the existential threat that the Chinese Communist Party and other bad actors around the world pose to Americans. We’re putting the safety of Mississippians first, and if that means you can’t use TikTok and other compromised technology on state devices or purchase drones made in China, so be it.”
In the House committee meeting on Wednesday, Cork also answered general questions about electric vehicles — a contentious technology among many national Republican politicians. Notable GOP politicians across the country and in Mississippi have decried the emergence of electric vehicles, defending the fossil fuel industry and complaining about the federal government‘s push for green energy.
Cork on Wednesday said several companies are planning to open electric vehicle battery production plants across America. He said MDA has tried to recruit some of those companies to Mississippi, but in the end many wanted more incentives than the state was prepared to offer. He said he felt confident in the state partnering with companies that were working on commercial vehicles.
“Transportation companies will figure out how to make this work,” Cork said. “If they don’t, they will pay us back.”
Cork also confirmed to the Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday the project would have to receive federal approval because some of the unnamed companies involved in the project were foreign-owned. Of the four reported companies that are part of the deal, Daimler is Germany-based and Eve Energy is China-based.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1750
Nov. 4, 1750
Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, the “Father of Chicago,” was born.
A man of African descent, he became the first known settler in the area that became the city of Chicago. He married a Potawatomi woman, Kitiwaha (Catherine), and they had two children.
According to records, the property included a log cabin with two barns, a horse-drawn mill, a bakehouse, a poultry house, a dairy, a smokehouse, a fenced garden and an orchard. At his trading post, DuSable served Native Americans, British and French explorers and spoke a number of languages.
“He was actually arrested by the British for being thought of as an American Patriot sympathizer,” Julius Jones, curator at the Chicago History Museum told WLS, but DuSable beat those charges.
In Chicago today, a school, street, museum, harbor, park and bridge bear his name. The place where he settled near the mouth of the Chicago River is now a National Historic Landmark, part of the city’s Pioneer Court.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Podcast: Mississippi’s top election official discusses Tuesday’s election
Secretary of State Michael Watson talks with Mississippi Today’s Geoff Pender, Bobby Harrison and Taylor Vance ahead of Tuesday’s election. He urges voters to remember sacrifices many have made to protect Americans’ voting rights and get to the polls, and he weighs in on whether a recent court ruling on absentee vote counting will impact this year’s elections.
READ MORE: As lawmakers look to cut taxes, Mississippi mayors and county leaders outline infrastructure needs
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Insurance chief willing to sue feds if Gov. Reeves doesn’t support state health exchange
State Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney is willing to sue the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services if it does not allow Mississippi to create a state-based health insurance exchange because of Republican Gov. Tate Reeves’ potential opposition.
Federal officials, who must approve of a state implementing its own health insurance exchange, want a letter of approval from a state’s governor before they allow a state to implement the program, according to Chaney.
“I don’t know what the governor’s going to do,” Chaney told Mississippi Today. “I think he’ll probably wait until after the election to make a decision. But I’m willing to sue CMS if that’s what it takes.”
The five-term commissioner, a Republican, said his requests to Reeves, also a Republican, to discuss the policy have gone unanswered. The governor’s office did not respond to a request to comment on this story.
Earlier this year, the Legislature passed a law authorizing Chaney’s agency to create a Mississippi-based exchange to replace the federal exchange that currently is used by Mississippians to obtain health insurance. The bill became law without the governor’s signature.
States that operate their own exchanges can typically attract more companies to write health insurance policies and offer people policies at lower costs, and it would likely save the state millions of dollars in payments to the federal government.
Chaney also said he’s been consulting with former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, who also supported some version of a state-based exchange while in office, about implementing a state-based program.
Currently, 21 states plus the District of Columbia have state-based exchanges, though three still operate from the federal platform. Should he follow through and sue the federal government, Chaney said he would use outside counsel and several other states told him they would join the lawsuit.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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