Bredesen’s High Stakes Poker Game With GM
Posted on June 15, 2009 at 8:00 amI must say I enjoyed our Governor’s outing of GM’s attempt to extort Tennessee out of $200 million last week.
What is most interesting is that most folks see the move as an admission by Bredesen that he has given up on keeping the GM plant.
I don’t think he has given up. He’s just playing the cards he’s been dealt. He’s not exactly working from a position of strength. He can’t match other the states in the running monetarily. We have a budget crisis and frankly our economy is, in fact, strong enough that we can afford to lose GM in a way that Michigan just can’t.
Bredesen doesn’t have any political stroke here. He spent much of 2008 sticking a fork in the eye of Obama and the state didn’t vote for him. Tennessee is not even in play nationally.
At the political negotiating table, Tennessee’s chance at keeping GM here are rubbish. The only way to win is to change the game. And that’s exactly what Bredesen did by taking the shakedown public.
Bredesen is working the only angle he has: shame. Everyone knows that Spring Hill is the best plant in the business sense. It’s newer, more flexible and the labor situation is about as good as you get in this country.
In the backroom, Bredesen (and Tennessee) can’t win. But in the sunshine, the focus gets put on the business again. Spring Hill may still lose the plant, but now, GM will look really bad taking it away.
Now, no one wants to look bad. So after all this bad press, if Bredesen came back to GM this week and said, “Well, I can’t do the 200 million but here’s what I can do.” Might GM look at the offer in a different light now if they can wipe away the shakedown artist rep Bredesen just gave them?
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10 Responses to “Bredesen’s High Stakes Poker Game With GM”
Since, at the moment, the Feds control GM, I would expect that the demand for cash originated with them. Tennessee as you point out is not a favorite of the Administration. Phil may have done more damage than he expected when he told Obama to stay out of his State.
Would’ve been nice to have an extra $200 million sitting in the Rainy Day fund right about now, huh? Because down in Spring Hill, and thousands of workers (and service businesses and property values and incomes) are about to get hit with a heavy downpour.
Then, the state maybe could have counter-offered to buy $200 million in cheap GM stock, so the state could make money if GM recovers.
If only we had an extra $200 million in the Rainy Day fund.
Too bad Gov. Bredesen blew most of that $1 billion-plus revenue surplus last year, huh?
It’s obvious that states with entrenched auto unions find this nothing more than business as usual. Vote buying at its finest.
The question always comes down to “Where does the money come from?”
Where would we have gotten this $200 million bribe that Government Motors wanted to continue building cars here in TN?
So Bill, Tennessee had a $1 Billion surplus last year?
Is that actual cash in the bank? or is that one of those phony “projected revenue” surpluses?
Tennessee paid General Motors to come here once before, back in the 1980’s.
Now they want to hold us up again?
The Governor is right. EJB.
I will be glad to see the UAW leave this area. Not so glad to see Government Motors go …
The billion-dollar surplus was cash in the bank. They spent most of it, including more than $700 million over the state constitution’s spending limit.
Hey Bill - did you get that email from Sherri Goforth? Or were you the one who sent it to her.
Go crawl back in your hole.
You know what kills me?
We’ve given tax breaks and incentives to the tune of more than a BILLION dollars to a German automaker. We’ve given tens of millions more tax breaks and incentives to Nissan North America so we could have a Japanese company’s HQ in Bill Hobbs’ backyard.
But when an American company asks for help, what do we say?
“Sorry, we won’t be extorted.”
Country first?
[...] reviews Gov. Bredesen’s grim options to keep General Motors in Spring Hill: What is most interesting [...]