Nissan Loses Mississippi Pissing Contest

Frank Williams
by Frank Williams

Nissan's taking a hit where it didn't expect, thanks to their failing full-size truck sales. According to the Madison County Journal, when Nissan built their plant in Canton, Mississippi, the automaker struck a deal with the county for accelerated depreciation on machinery. The company claimed it would depreciate faster, as it would be "used more frequently across multiple work shifts." Obviously, the local politicians would have said yes to a back massage write-off clause to get the plant. So they agreed. But things aren't working out quite like they planned. The county pays $1.67m per year on debts related to incentives they bestowed upon Nissan. Last year the plant only brought in $1.64m in taxes. And now that the plant isn't generating the estimated tax revenue due to production cuts, the county wants to tax the machinery using a standard depreciation scale. Of course, Nissan protested, saying "the assessment should not be based on a bond payment, it should be based on true value… nothing has changed to take away from the spirit of [the original] agreement." The county says that that may have been the case originally, but running two shifts instead of three changes the equation and doesn't wear out the machinery as fast. The county board of supervisors passed the new tax assessment unanimously. Anyone want to place any bets on whether Nissan will invest any more on expanding their operations in the Magnolia State?

Frank Williams
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  • Windswords Windswords on Aug 22, 2008

    menno: "Look at South Dakota. Amongst the lowest taxation in the country, in just about every category (especially important for businesses and their prospective employees both). Otherwise, who would suffer the super-extreme winters and wind, and even go there?" South Dakota (or is it North Dakota?) has copied the banking laws of Delaware (a state I used to live and work in) and is now a mjor processing center for credit cards like Delaware and competes for it's business. Nevada, formerly just known for gambling and whores, has copied Delaware's incorporation laws and regulations and now a lot of companies incorporate there.

  • Menno Menno on Aug 22, 2008

    windswords: PRECISELY. Yes, it's South Dakota. Some of the other really highly rated states for biz are (as you mentioned) Nevada, also Washington is fairly "up there". Had a link to a story which "rated" states for small businesses (we all know that most job growth is still through small businesses rather than conglomerate humungous corporations which tend to export jobs to Mexico, China, etc) - hang on and I'll try to find it for posting. Found it. http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/fsb/beststates_taxes/index.html

  • Menno Menno on Aug 22, 2008

    We all know that small businesses manage to provide many more jobs overall than do large conglomerate corporations (which of late, especially, have been busy exporting jobs to Mexico and China) so here's a link which might be of interest, windwards. http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/fsb/beststates_taxes/index.html

  • Jkurk Jkurk on Feb 14, 2009

    This is for menno, companies doing what they want is what got us into this mess the penalty for having a Republican free market! Over tax imports!! you want us to be more alienated from the world same backwards mentallity you Republicans posses revert to the past!!!!You Republicans should have the symbol of the Donkey because you are stubborn Mules who refuse to learn!!!! Don't blame Nissan or Mississippi (Compare to the rest of the country this is still good news) for their mess blame the Bush Administration. I'm sure when the economy picks up they'll be one of the places "Mississippi" that rebounds first(Does everyone forget about Katrina? I was visiting the Gulf Coast before and right after one of the the worst storm in American History!!! I recently went back again talk about a speedy recovery) that's why I'm moving there from Orlando Florida worse place I've ever lived!!! At least Mississippi walks the walk while all Orlando does is do nothing but talk!!!

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