Could Oklahoma learn this week if it will be chosen over Kansas as the site of a nearly $4 billion Panasonic battery plant?
It’s the project OK Energy Today first reported earlier in the year after the Kansas legislature agreed to step up with millions of dollars in economic enticement, well before Oklahoma began taking notice.
NonDoc, the news website that closely follows happenings at the state capitol reports the legislature could act this week to come up with the state’s own economic incentive to convince Panasonic to locate at the Pryor industrial park where Canoo plans to build its EV car plant.
In other words, legislators could flash a lot of money in the face of Panasonic leaders to convince them to locate in Oklahoma, not Kansas.
Here is how NonDoc reported what the legislature might do to lock in the project:
These days, major fiscal efforts typically appear as “JCAB” bills — meaning they are first heard in near-simultaneous Senate and House Joint Committee on Appropriations and Budget hearings.
With the 2022 session’s first JCAB meeting called for 4:30 p.m. today, at least one puzzle piece may have locked into place during budget negotiations. It appears that agreement involves a new state business incentive program tailored specifically to solidify what would be an enormous investment in Oklahoma. State leaders have been attempting to strike a deal with the Japanese company Panasonic to build a massive battery plant at the Mid-America Industrial Park in Pryor. The project is rumored to be in the $4 billion range and could generate upwards of 4,000 jobs. Panasonic has existing agreements with Tesla and Canoo, which has struck its own agreement to build an electric vehicle plant in Pryor.
Oklahoma is competing for the Panasonic project — code name “Ocean” among state leaders — against Kansas, which has created its own incentives totaling up to $1.2 billion. If Panasonic chooses Oklahoma for its huge manufacturing plant, the company would be well-positioned to sell batteries to Tesla’s plant in Austin and Canoo’s new plant in Pryor, which might also benefit from the new “mega” incentive rebate package. The names and acronyms that will be given to Oklahoma’s proposed new incentive programs remain unclear, as do the exact details. But lawmakers could dedicate hundreds of millions of unallocated funds from prior fiscal years toward the Panasonic incentive, which some would like to see be created more like the state’s film rebate program and less like the state’s past wind farm tax credit. What does that mean in practice? By directing one lump of existing cash into a fund for implementation-based rebates, legislative leaders would try to avoid obligating future Legislatures to fund the sort of open-ended tax credit and ad valorem reimbursement programs that have caused prior budget problems.
It’s possible that Panasonic will decide between Kansas and Oklahoma this week or next, so pressure seems high for legislators to agree upon an incentive framework and get a bill — or bills — to the governor’s desk sooner than later. The delicate and potentially controversial nature of the “Ocean” incentive project largely explains the lengthy GOP caucus meetings held last week. While dedicating this much money to a business incentive certainly raises eyebrows among lawmakers, opportunities to land $4 billion manufacturing facilities don’t come around every day.
Beyond that drama, keep an eye out for Senate and House meetings of their Appropriations and Budget Committees.
Source: NonDoc