re: What are examples of companies that almost chose to build in Louisiana but didn't?

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Can you think of anything in the past 10 years?

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This is a lot more than 10 years ago, but I knew some of the people involved quite well. A chemical company built a large plant in Louisiana. A bunch of companies associated with Edwin Edwards asked to bid on projects (paving the plant parking lot was one in particular). The bids by these connected companies were always high and rejected. The chemical company then ran into gigantic problems with the state with permitting; anything that the state could regulate was used as a weapon to retaliate for not hiring the connected companies. The company had planned to built two more plants of the same design next door. Instead those two plants were built in Oklahoma.

Crappy public schools have done at least as much damage as corruption. The two together have really hurt the economic development of Louisiana.