When Gov. Phil Bryant was announced as the featured speaker at Thursday’s Golden Triangle Development LINK luncheon at the East Mississippi Community College Mayhew campus, there was speculation that the event would be used to announce the arrival of another major industry.

Bryant’s presence, combined with an announcement last month that American Specialty Alloys was looking into Lowndes County property and that it would announce its “rollout” on Dec. 19, seemed to suggest big news was in the air. American Specialty Alloys said in a release it was prepared to build a $1.2 billion facility that would employ up to 850 people and produce 600,000 tons on aluminum annually.

“If you were expecting the Governor to talk about a big project coming here, I’m sorry,” LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins told the crowd Thursday. “We’re not there yet.”

Instead, the Governor used his time to tout the state’s progress on the economic development front.

“Mississippi is winning,” Bryant said, using a power-point presentation that touted the statistics and rankings in a wide range of areas where Mississippi could be viewed as “business friendly.” Among those states, Bryant pointed out that the state was rated as No. 1 in labor costs and No. 4 in the most tax-friendly states for business.

“We don’t have many unions in our state and I’m not particularly fond of unions,” Bryant said. “Unions, like taxes, drive up costs and those costs are passed on to the consumer. It’s just the way things are.”

Closer to home, Bryant noted the LINK’s success in attracting industry.

“I go all over the state talking about economic development,” Bryant said. “And everywhere I go, people come up to me and say, ‘Why is the Golden Triangle getting everything?’ I tell them we’re not giving them anything. They call us, tell us what they have and we hit the ground running. The truth is, you guys do a better job than anybody else in the state.”

Although he refused to identify any projects, Higgins said the LINK is actively working on projects “well in excess of $2 billion.”

Higgins said in the week after Thanksgiving alone, the LINK had received five requests for proposals (RFPs) from a diverse group of companies.

“Logistics, warehousing, automotive, metals — even the food industry,” Higgins said. “I can say that from where we sit right now, today, something good is going to happen in all three of our counties (in 2015).”

The luncheon also marked the end of the two-year term of LINK chairman Gordon Flowers, who will be replaced by John Davis of Cadence Bank.

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].