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banner year for the Volunteer State came to an end as the man responsible for a large portion of Tennessee’s economic success stepped down from his post to return to the private sector.On the same day that Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist announced that his state had achieved a record US$7 billion in private capital investment in 2000 from new and expanding companies, Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Baxter announced his return to his family business.
Losing the steady leadership of Baxter leaves a big void for Tennessee, but the good news for Volunteers is that Baxter leaves the state in the best economic shape it’s had in decades. Under Baxter’s leadership, the state set records in each of the last three years for private capital investment and job creation, reaching $5 billion in 1998 and $6 billion in 1999. The record $7 billion in investment in 2000 created more than 34,000 new jobs statewide.
“Eighteen months ago, not a single computer was made in the state of Tennessee,” says Baxter.
“Today, we have two major computer manufacturers, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, employing thousands of people in this state.”
After raising the economic development bar to new levels in 1999, Tennessee outdid itself in 2000, capped by the following plant expansions:
- On April 4, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard Co. announced that it would relocate several of its manufacturing, distribution and returns-processing activities from the West Coast to LaVergne, Tenn., bringing 1,500 technology jobs to the region.
- On April 18, Portland, Ore.-based Willamette Industries announced plans to invest $475 million in the company’s Kingsport, Tenn., paper manufacturing facility.
- On April 25, General Motors Corp. announced that it would invest a total of $1.5 billion on improvements at its Saturn Corp. automotive facility in Spring Hill, Tenn.
- On July 20, Nissan North America announced plans to expand its engine and transaxle plant in Decherd, Tenn., and to maximize vehicle production capacity at its Smyrna, Tenn., vehicle assembly plant. The company said it would invest a total of $1 billion over the next four years to expand the two facilities.
Baxter, characteristic of his leadership style, was quick to give credit to everyone but himself for this record run of plant expansions in Tennessee. “The first thing you have to have is good people, and we have great economic development teams all over the state,” he says. “There is a great partnership between the state and the private sector and all the local boards around the state.”
Baxter also credited the existing and previous administrations of Tennessee for setting the tone of pro-business leadership. “Former Gov. Lamar Alexander really got the automotive industry started with the recruiting of Nissan,” Baxter says. “That put us on the map with the Japanese companies. We now have more than 800 automotive parts makers in Tennessee, and we are also the fourth leading producer of cars and light trucks in the U.S. Four years ago, not a single car was made here.”
Baxter notes that Tennessee’s No. 1 economic challenge will continue to be “finding people that are either trained or trainable. We have assisted Tennessee companies in training people up the technology ladder, but we need to do a better job at developing our K-12 education system, as well as our community colleges and universities.”
Baxter was appointed commissioner of the Tennessee Dept. of Economic and Community Development (ECD) by Gov. Sundquist on Dec. 1, 1997. Baxter is also chairman of his family-owned business, Holston Gases, a distributor of propane, industrial, medical and laboratory gases. Holston Gases, based in Knoxville, has seven distribution facilities in middle and east Tennessee.
Baxter, a graduate of Duke University and the University of Tennessee School of Law, is being replaced at the ECD by incoming Commissioner Alex Fischer, who had served as deputy commissioner under Baxter.
For more information on economic development in Tennessee, go to the state’s web site at www.state.tn.us.
