State now playing big

• By GARY PERILLOUX
• Advocate business writer
• Published: Jun 25, 2008 - Page: 1D - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Louisiana’s Department of Economic Development will wield $350 million more in firepower to beat bids from competing states and nations in the state financial year beginning July 1.

And LED Secretary Stephen Moret said bigger results should be expected.

For example, Moret expects to use every bit of a $41 million Rapid Response Fund available to the governor for quick-strike, deal-making incentives, such as the recent luring of Albemarle Corp. headquarters from Richmond, Va., to Baton Rouge.

That fund is four times bigger than it was under former Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

And a gubernatorial Mega-Project Development Fund — to be used only on projects that create 500 or more jobs and spend $100 million or more in private money — will triple its former size under Blanco from $150 million to $450 million.

A bid for a potential $2 billion to $4 billion Nucor Corp. steel mill in St. James Parish definitely would make use of that megafund, Moret said.

Those deal-making funds, joined by other enhancements, will give LED several times the financial firepower it previously had and several times the money in its own annual operating budget, Moret told the state Board of Commerce and Industry at the board’s June meeting Tuesday.

Still, money won’t solve all of Louisiana’s problems, Moret said, and the reorganization of work force training and education programs through the Department of Labor and the state’s community and technical college system will be more important than anything else in the next fiscal year.

“The No. 1 challenge we face is providing work force development solutions,” Moret said.

A “fast track” work force training program will be established in partnership with the Louisiana Community and Technical College System and be patterned on a nationally recognized model in Georgia, Moret said. Turnkey training solutions will help expanding and relocating businesses begin operations sooner and more successfully, he said.

A national search is under way for a director of the fast-track program who’ll be one of LED’s two most important hirings in the remainder of 2008, Moret said.

Another key leader will begin a new LED team focused exclusively on retaining and expanding existing businesses, something that should yield better results for companies already in the state, Moret said.

Yet another team will work on improving Louisiana’s competitiveness as measured on business climate and quality of life issues.