Getting up to Speed at MDA
By By Buddy Bynum / editor
Jan. 11, 2004
Gov.-elect Haley Barbour has dipped into a pool of successful Mississippi entrepreneurs by tapping Jackson businessman Leland Speed to head the Mississippi Development Authority.
Speed is a legend in commercial and industrial real estate for getting things done quickly and competently, a tough enough task in private business. In government work, the words quickly and competently are, let's charitably say, underutilized.
It's all too easy for any bureaucracy to get caught up in its own inertia.
High marks
Barbour said Speed is "a true visionary with a proven history of bringing people together for a common purpose. He is a Mississippi success story and an example of how Mississippians can make it to the top of their profession."
That's lofty praise and raises expectations that Barbour's administration will produce the new and better-paying jobs for which Mississippians yearn.
Barbour and Speed say they share a commitment to recruit new jobs to Mississippi even as they bring new focus on helping existing businesses grow.
I've long believed that Mississippi's economic development statutes even the most recent incarnations adopted during the Musgrove administration tend to shortchange existing businesses in terms of incentives and government-sponsored training programs.
State government, through the community college system, is the primary provider of workforce training and, clearly, more resources have to be allocated in this important area. Whether it will actually happen in a period of tight state finances remains to be seen.
High hopes
In East Mississippi, hopes are especially high. Barbour said he and Speed "share a common goal of unifying Mississippi's economic development efforts so that no region of our state is left out or left behind."
Barbour knows East Mississippi and, to an extent, South Mississippi have been left out. The $1.4 billion Nissan project in Madison County comes to mind, as does a botched Musgrove attempt to attract South Korean automaker Hyundai to a site in Rankin County the company didn't want. A potential site in the Kewanee area got scant consideration.
Even as he re-tools MDA, Barbour may ask current executive director Steve Hale, a Musgrove appointee, to stay on.
Barbour said he is continuing to work with Alabama Gov. Bob Riley on bi-state economic development initiatives and will participate in a Feb. 6 summit sponsored by the Commission on the Future of East Mississippi and West Alabama in Livingston, Ala.
For his part, Speed certainly has an excellent reputation and worldwide contacts that should prove very useful to Mississippi's industry recruitment efforts.
The fact that he said he will return his salary to the state is just icing on the cake. But, then again, Speed doesn't need the money; for Mississippi's purposes, his time and talents are far more valuable.
