Congratulations Tate County on landing Twin Creeks Technologies. It looks

like Panola County may have missed out on a good deal, maybe. Recent news

releases state Twin Creeks Technologies was founded in 2008, just two years

ago.

Solar energy is a buzzword right now, just as ethanol was a few years ago. Where are all those start up ethanol plants now that our tax money was poured into? Most all sit idle, even those in the Corn Belt. Mississippi has invested $50 million in Twin Creeks Technologies with another $4 million for infrastructure improvements to be spent at the site. Most of that ($4 million) will come from the City of Senatobia taxpayers.

The question facing Panola County officials is how much to invest right now at the proposed Airport Industrial Site considering there’s already empty industrial park space just a couple of miles away southwest of I-55 & Hwy. 35. I attended a supervisors meeting a few months ago and my understanding was the County, Batesville, and Panola Partnership were putting up $100,000 each to begin getting the airport site ready by extending water/sewer and power to the site plus putting in a road.

To go much beyond that without knowing exactly what company is going to move in and the building they would need might be a iffy situation, especially in light of possible state cutbacks in county funding such as reimbursements for state inmates housing and feeding, homestead exemptions, education, and other areas.

The money the County has been using to make the annual payment on our new $7.2 mil jail ($369,000 is this year’s note) has been from the reimbursements for state inmates, an item the Governor purposes to cut from the state’s new budget. So where is the County coming up with that and other money? We just floated a big bond issue. More tax increases? We just saw the largest property tax increase in recent memory.

Panola Partnership is good at what it does for Panola County. Our Supervisors are held responsible for the funding and operations of many county departments and projects. If the state cuts to counties stay in place those supervisors will also be responsible for coming up with funds to replace the money Jackson won’t be sending.

Everyone is for economic development and new jobs but let’s pursue those goals with our eye on the ball; not the pie in the sky. Lack of proper financial planning almost always leads to disaster. For when the bills come due we the taxpayer will be the ones picking up the tab.

Bob Bryant

Crenshaw

(Editor’s note: The only “empty industrial park space” remaining in the W. M. Harmon Industrial Complex remains in scattered, small-acreage parcels. Developing industrial property northeast of the I-55/Hwy. 35 intersection would allow the county to offer ready-to-build property for a manufacturer seeking large acreage on the interstate corridor.)