Filibuster may have lost pharmaceutical plant

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"It was as big on the pharmaceutical side as BMW on the automotive side," said Mark Kingsbury, a Greenville County Council member. Kingsbury said he was not privy to details or the name of the firm.

Industry hunters wouldn't say the delay was a deal-breaker, but that no top-flight pharmaceutical-biotech firms will come to Greenville or elsewhere in South Carolina until the new incentives are in place.

Whether the firm's decision could be delayed until next year wasn't clear.

A one-man adjournment day filibuster on June 5 prevented the state Senate from passing the bill to expand incentives for high-paying biotechnology companies.

The legislation would have affected firms investing at least $100 million with a minimum of 200 jobs that are 150 percent above the state's average per capita income, said House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville. The state's per capita income was $18,795 in 1999, according to the South Carolina Statistical Abstract 2001-2002.

With the delay, "I don't know the status. I do know there was a good prospect that, among others, that bill was designed to attract," Wilkins said. "The last I heard, we were still in the running."

A "disappointed" Sam Konduros, president of the Upstate S.C. Alliance, a quasi-public industry recruiting agency, said the bill "is hugely related to our success in attracting a biotechnology plant. One will be very difficult to attract without that bill."

Konduros, who declined to identify the firm, said he was not aware of any decision by the company to drop Greenville from its list.

"The life sciences bill was a big part of this and when it didn't pass, it wasn't going to happen," Kingsbury said. "Hopefully, it's not gone; in this economy, they might be willing to wait."

Jerry Howard, president of the Greenville Area Development Corp., declined to comment when asked if the firm had opted for another location.

But Howard said, "Considering the state of South Carolina, our region, and Greenville, we've all identified pharmaceutical-biotech industries as a high priority for recruitment. This bill, by not being passed, hasn't helped in that regard. Until that bill is passed, South Carolina cannot be competitive in that market."

Howard wouldn't identify the firm.

Kingsbury said, "Hopefully, it's not gone."

Konduros said the bill was critical for the whole pharmaceutical-biotechnology market range and "for clients looking at the Upstate, it would have made us competitive."

The House-passed bill was before the Senate just hours before adjournment when freshman Republican John Kuhn of Charleston spoke at length and, in the face of repeated requests, declined to yield the floor. Kuhn's effort created visible tension and triggered several impromptu meetings in which he was surrounded by colleagues who urged him to relent.

The industrial recruitment incentives had been merged into a bill that would have created access to tens of millions of dollars for the state's three research universities and Kuhn sought to add smaller institutions to the mix.

Wilkins said the bill will win Senate approval when lawmakers return to Columbia and that Gov. Mark Sanford and Commerce Secretary Bob Faith "were pushing hard" for its passage when the Legislature adjourned.

He said it was his understanding that the company had narrowed the possible sites to Greenville and a location in another state.

Wilkins said the proposed legislation would expand the Enterprise Zone Act passed during the 1995-99 Beasley administration that provided eligibility for employee relocation expense reimbursement and job development credits to attract companies to the state.

"It was designed to look at numbers," Wilkins said. "If a company came in here and created X hundreds of jobs, it got some investment credits. This bill changes the focus so that you're not emphasizing just pure numbers, but a major capital investment and high-paying jobs. Wilkins said he didn't know the proposed number of jobs or the pay range.

In the highly secretive world of industry-hunting, where disclosure of a firm's identity can sink a potential relocation, Greenville officials dubbed the effort, "Project Rain" or "Rainwater," Kingsbury said.

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Dan Hoover covers politics and can be reached at 298-4883.