Blanco takes a different path than Foster to woo companies to Louisiana

Globe-trotting Gov. Kathleen Blanco takes a sharply different approach to wooing business to Louisiana than her predecessor, former Gov. Mike Foster, an avowed homebody much more averse to traveling in his economic development efforts.

Foster was lambasted with complaints, particularly during his second term, that he stayed too close to home and tried to do business "from a duck blind," while other governors traveled the world to attract investors and brought home large auto plants with hundreds of jobs.

By contrast, Blanco never shies from hitting the road, or getting on a plane, to meet business leaders in person, at their conference tables or over dinner. She returned last week from a two-week trip to Japan, China, Taiwan and Kuwait that covered more than 22,000 miles.

"We have to look into the future and position Louisiana. We're competing with other states, but it's bigger than even the United States. There is a worldwide competition for investment, and we have got to be in this mix," Blanco said after returning from her trip.

It remains to be seen if Blanco's latest jaunt will reap dividends, but she's at least on record with voters as giving her best traveling efforts to bring in new jobs, new investments and new businesses.

Foster overhauled the state's economic development office during his eight years as governor, but that office missed out on attracting big automotive manufacturers landed by neighboring Southern states.

Mississippi nabbed a Nissan assembly plant in November 2000, by doling out millions of dollars in tax breaks in a full-court press for the manufacturing facility, and Alabama won a multistate competition for a Hyundai Motor Co. plant in 2002, beating out several states for the South Korean carmaker's first plant in the United States, a $1 billion facility.

Foster acknowledged in 2001 that Louisiana had been "out of the loop" when other Southern states competed for the Hyundai plant. Several state officials at the time said they weren't even aware that Hyundai was looking for a site in the South that would bring in 2,000 jobs until they read about it.

But Foster never said he thought travel was the critical part in his economic development efforts, instead saying that the department needed the revamp that he put in place late during his tenure.

"I've been amused by the fact that everybody talks or seems to think that the perfect governor is one that would stay on the road all time. That's a joke," the former governor said in an interview as he ended his second term in 2003.

Blanco said her trip was the first large-scale economic development mission overseas since Buddy Roemer was governor from 1988 to 1992. And she said she was certain the trip was critical to selling Louisiana to Asian business leaders, a hotbed of new investment.

"We want to build lasting relationships, and we realize, and it was reenforced on this trip, personal relationships mean a great deal when you are talking about Asian opportunities. They do not make decisions in a void, and if you're not selling yourself, you're not on their radar screen," Blanco said.

While abroad, the governor met with the leaders of businesses not in Louisiana, like Toyota Motor Corp., trying to persuade companies to build a manufacturing plant on land in northeast Louisiana the state has agreed to buy for $4.6 million.

She also sat down with representatives of businesses already here like Formosa Plastics Corp., which just announced expansion plans last week to ensure they and their jobs will remain in the state.

Blanco had a new selling point since hurricanes Katrina and Rita: the federal tax breaks offered as part of the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act, designed to help boost recovery efforts. She also had the benefit or detriment, depending on the view of a new heightened awareness of the state because of the storms and what she said was "an eagerness to help us recover."

Now, the state gets to see whether Blanco's on-the-road, personal touch delivers more than Foster's much maligned stay-home, business-by-phone method.

Muddying the picture however, are other problems, some of which predate the hurricanes: insurance rates, health care, poor schools. How those problems are dealt with could determine whether Blanco's missions leave the state with anything more than hotel and airfare bills.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Melinda Deslatte covers the state Capitol for The Associated Press.