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News > Press Releases
   Jul 21, 2009 LAFAYETTE – Today, Governor Bobby Jindal brought his “Louisiana Working Tour” to Lafayette where he addressed the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce and stressed the importance of economic development and job creation. Governor Jindal is visiting all 64 parishes within the next several months as part of his “Louisiana Working Tour” to highlight the state’s top priority of job creation. Later in the day, the “Louisiana Working Tour” stopped in Livonia where Governor Jindal held a townhall meeting. Governor Jindal said, “In the midst of a national economic downturn, we’ve created thousands of new jobs for our people and billions in capital investment for Louisiana – and we’ve done so by pursuing a strategy that tightens the belt on state government and rejects higher taxes on people and businesses. In short, we’ve established an economic environment that creates opportunity for our people. Indeed, we’ve made significant progress, but we must keep moving forward – and we will not stop until Louisiana is one of the top spots in the country for businesses to invest, grow and create more jobs.” Fostering Job Creation Governor Jindal highlighted a number of reforms made since he entered office in order to create a winning economic environment, including ethics reforms, tax cuts and revamping the state’s workforce development system. On ethics reform, Governor Jindal noted, “We had to fundamentally change the way business was done in our state – and through an incredibly tough package of ethics laws we worked with the legislature to pass in that first special session – we succeeded.” Governor Jindal said because of these reforms Louisiana moved from the bottom five to the top five on the Better Government Association’s BGA-Alper Integrity Index rankings and the Center for Public Integrity recently announced that Louisiana’s legislative disclosure requirement went up from number 44 to number one in the nation. The Governor highlighted reforms he pushed to eliminate burdensome business taxes saying, “We came back in a second legislative session and eliminated – or sped up the elimination – of taxes that were crippling the growth of businesses and discouraging investment in our state including taxes on debt, utilities, and new equipment.” Governor Jindal also noted that he worked with the Legislature to completely overhaul the state’s workforce development system in order to connect thousands of job opportunities with skilled workers. Governor Jindal said, “We used to compete based on our resources, now we must compete based on having the most skilled workforce. Seventy percent of employers considering expanding or relocating to Louisiana tell us that finding skilled workers is their top one or two concerns.” Economic Wins Create Jobs Governor Jindal said that since he has entered office, Louisiana has won economic development projects creating more than 32,000 direct and indirect jobs and $4.3 billion in capital investment. Governor Jindal said, “These new jobs and billions of dollars in business investment in our state are not a coincidence. This is the product of a strategy geared at positioning Louisiana to be one of the best places in the world for business investment, expansion, and job creation.” Governor Jindal used real life examples of how these economic development wins are helping Louisianians. The Governor recognized Daniel Lewis and Jerrie Hollingsworth, both of the Lafayette area, who have been impacted positively because of the state’s focus on business expansion and retention. After graduating from LSU in Baton Rouge, Daniel Lewis took a job as a financial adviser at J.P. Morgan Chase in Baton Rouge. Through his job at Chase he met some film producers who had recently come to town and needed his help setting up bank accounts and finding places to live. When these producers decided to start their own production company in Baton Rouge, they asked Lewis to come on board. At the time, Lewis was about to move to New York City for a new job with Chase. He thought about his options and decided he would rather stay in Louisiana – so he made the jump from the financial world to the film industry. Lewis has since left that Baton Rouge production company and is now working for Bullet Films in Lafayette. Bullet Films specifically chose Louisiana for its location because of the tax incentives that the state offers to the film industry. Governor Jindal said, “Daniel told us that if it weren’t for these incentives, he would have to either end his career in the film industry or move his family out of state. Both he and his wife have lived in Louisiana their entire lives, and being close to home is very important to them. The Governor highlighted Jerrie Hollingsworth of Crowley who is a single mother of three children. Hollingsworth moved back from Atlanta a couple years ago because she wanted to come back home. For two years she worked different jobs through a temp agency, but she wanted to find a more dependable income to support her family. In February of last year, Hollingsworth saw an ad for a customer service position at Calls Plus in Lafayette. Calls Plus is a 24-hour call center – that was originally located in New Orleans, but the company’s owner, Barbara Lamont, wanted to move the company to Lafayette after Hurricane Katrina. With the help of the Louisiana Small Business Development Center and LED’s Small and Emerging Business Development Program, the company relocated to Lafayette and has since tripled its revenue and expanded to two locations. Hollingsworth moved from Crowley to Lafayette about a year ago and she said she is so excited to have a steady job and a great outlook on life. Governor Jindal said, “Jerrie said she loves her job not just because she gets to learn something new every day, but because the folks she works with are like her family.” In the Acadiana Region, economic development wins resulted in 235 new direct jobs in the parish, 585 new indirect jobs, and $424 million in new capital investment.
In the Greater Baton Rouge Area, economic development wins resulted in 943 new direct jobs in the region, 2,977 new indirect jobs, 1,214 jobs protected, and $559 million in new capital investment.
Governor Jindal highlighted a number of recent economic development wins, including:
Driving Louisiana’s Economy The Governor said that Louisiana is not only one of the few states announcing new jobs and new investments in this challenging economy, but major new economic drivers. Indeed, he noted that out of roughly 120,000 employers in the state, about 1,000 of them are responsible for more than 50 percent of the total economic activity, and the state’s recent job win announcements has added to this top tier. Governor Jindal said the expansion of Gardner Denver Thomas in Monroe, the reopening of Tembec mill in West Feliciana, the opening of the new VVC auto assembly facility in Monroe, and the opening of the new SNF chemical plant in Iberville – will each be added to the list of top 300 economic-driver companies in Louisiana once they hit full employment. He also highlighted other top 300 economic driver wins, including the LaShip project in Southeast Louisiana, Shaw Modular Solutions in Lake Charles, the Shaw headquarters expansion in Baton Rouge, Zagis USA, and the Performance Energy expansion. The Governor said Louisiana has attracted three significant new headquarters to Louisiana – including Albemarle Bercen Inc., and Horizon Entertainment – and the state recently added its third Fortune 500 company with the merger of CenturyTel and EMBARQ. Governor Jindal said that while other states are seeing people leave under high unemployment rates, Louisiana has now experienced its second consecutive year of population in-migration, according to the U.S. Census. Governor Jindal said that Southern Business & Development (SB&D) magazine recently announced that Louisiana is “Co-state of the Year” alongside Tennessee for economic expansion and business growth. Louisiana and Tennessee beat out 15 other states in the South in the annual SB&D 100 rankings Additionally, SB&D named New Orleans the “Major Market of the Year” and Baton Rouge “Mid-Market of the Year.” Terrebonne Parish also received recognition from SB&D for landing projects that will have a positive impact on the local economy. Governor Jindal also noted that Louisiana ranks second in the South for having the lowest unemployment rate, and the state currently has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation – nearly three percentage points below the national average. The Governor said the Baton Rouge market specifically was reported to have the second largest total of year-over-year job gains out of 310 metro areas in the country recently studied – and both Livingston and Ascension Parishes recently made the top 100 List of Fastest Growing Counties/Parishes in the country. Governor Jindal said that NewGeography.com ranked Lafayette, Baton Rouge and Shreveport-Bossier in the top 10 of their 2009 Best Medium-Sized Cities for Job Growth, and BusinessWeek named Baton Rouge and New Orleans among the most stable cities for riding out the national recession. Finally, he noted that The Local Market Monitor, a national real estate market appraisal organization, says Louisiana is one of just five states in the country to show an increase in home prices over the past year. The assessment says that the Housing Price Index jumped 3.1 percent in Louisiana, but nationally, it fell by 10.2 percent. In fact, Local Market Monitor ranks Lake Charles, Shreveport, Alexandria and Monroe among the top ten housing markets with a population of 600,000 people or less. ###  Related Links Governor Jindal's "Louisiana Working Tour" Makes Stop in Assumption Parish >> Governor Jindal's "Louisiana Working Tour" Makes Stop in Opelousas >> |
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