The sense I get from those companies is that Texas is a big player, said Jeff McKay, executive direc

The gunfight is shaping cheap hotel rooms bangkok up to pit South Carolina against the state of Texas, ranked at least equal with South Carolina on residents fervor to uphold the Second Amendment and several notches ahead on incentives to recruit new employers. cheap hotel rooms bangkok The targets, firearms manufacturers PTR Industries and Stag Arms, are both in the sights of the two states.
At stake are 308 jobs -- some of which would be filled locally -- the chance to become a magnet for other disaffected firearms manufacturers and a logical place for their suppliers to set up operations, bringing even more jobs.
The sense I get from those companies is that Texas is a big player, said Jeff McKay, executive director of the North Eastern Strategic Alliance, an economic development coalition of nine counties, including Horry, Georgetown and Florence.
Area Development magazine ranks Texas the No. 1 state and South Carolina No. 2 in overall business environment; cheap hotel rooms bangkok Site Selection magazine ranked Texas No. 3 and South Carolina No. 10 in its most recent list of economic development powerhouses.
Fifty percent of Site Selection s list is based on a survey of corporate site selectors, which chose Texas as their top dog, and 50 percent on criteria that include a state s record of attracting capital investment, projects logged into the magazine s new plant database and state tax burdens.
Area Development put Texas in the top spot for access to capital and project funding, speed of permitting, corporate tax environment, incentive programs and cost of doing business. South Carolina topped Texas only in the corporate state government category, where South Carolina was No. 2 and the Longhorn State was pegged No. 4. South Carolina tied for second with Alabama and Mississippi in speed of permitting, cheap hotel rooms bangkok was third for incentive programs and cost of doing business and tied for fifth with Virginia on corporate tax environment.
It is very difficult to go toe to toe with Texas on cash, said Brad Lofton, CEO of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp. and the point man for South Carolina in the gunfight. cheap hotel rooms bangkok They have a tremendous amount of resources.
Just one of those ways, the Texas Enterprise Fund, has since 2004 given businesses more than $450 million to create 192,478 new jobs, according to the website. There are a number of other multi-million dollar funds that can funnel money to local economic developers, set up low interest loans for new and expanding businesses and other things.
South Carolina, whose economic development website is sccommerce.com, does not make the same kind of large cash payments to lure businesses or help them expand. It offers tax credits for job creation, but puts the lion s share of its economic development money in grants to counties to develop or improve infrastructure.
cheap hotel rooms bangkok According to information from the Department of Commerce, the state since 2004 has paid out nearly $261 million from economic development set-aside and rural infrastructure funds that were tied to the creation of 42,893 jobs. A small part of that was cash that went directly to an industry in what is known as closing costs.
In another recruiting arena, Texas also has the enthusiastic persona cheap hotel rooms bangkok of Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican primary candidate for president in 2012, who has been unabashed in his desire to have firearms cheap hotel rooms bangkok manufacturers in his state.
When PTR Industries said on its website that it planned to move from Connecticut, Perry was quick to issue a public statement that he wanted the company in Texas. He also introduced himself to Stag Arms CEO Mark Malkowski at a gun convention and issued a personal cheap hotel rooms bangkok invitation for him to visit the state.
Haley refused to say if she will accept the invitation in questions emailed to her spokesman by The Sun News. She also wouldn t say anything about how South Carolina could mess with Texas in economic development.
Their home state, which passed a restrictive gun law that is causing the angst among its firearms manufacturers, cheap hotel rooms bangkok is trying cheap hotel rooms bangkok to lessen the damage. The legislature has made numerous changes to the original law, but as yet it s not enough to satisfy Malkowski, according to an article in The Bristol Press.
While Lofton acknowledged that South Carolina doesn t have the money to buy the bullets that Texas can load in its recruitment weapons, it s not as though the Palmetto State is without trump cards of its own.
Both states offer to tailor training programs for new and expanding businesses, but Grand Strand employers also have the Southeastern cheap hotel rooms bangkok Institute of Manufacturing and Technology in Florence, which can produce 3D training images.
Additionally, Lofton said that ReadySC, a division of the S.C. Technical College System, will provide onsite training at an employer s workplace. Officials at Horry Georgetown Technical College said they have not been advised to plan courses to train firearms employees, but college President Neyle Wilson said the college is ready to do so when asked.
Fiorini told The Sun News that because of the location, his employees who transfer in his company s move would find the Grand Strand surroundings more familiar and the transition would be easier. Besides, he joked, there are worse places to live than a resort area.
Rep. Alan Clemmons, who met last week with Malkowski and Fiorini in Connecticut, cheap hotel rooms bangkok said he was told that employees at both companies said they d rather relocate to Myrtle Beach than other locations the companies might be considering.
Malkowski has not yet made a firm decision to move Stag Arms, and if he does, he said it will be in stages. He would open a plant in whichever state he decides on, and if that works well, may move the rest of his operation from Connecticut.
PTR s website said that the company definitely will move, and Fiorini told The Sun News that he hoped to make a decision cheap hotel rooms bangkok by the end of May. An Horry County incentive package for PTR was placed on the County Council s table for action last month, but as yet has not gotten a vote.
We are competitive in South Carolina, Clemmons said. We are very competitive ... I think the chances are certainly better than average that Horry County will ultimately be the choice of at least one of the companies I talked cheap hotel rooms bangkok with.