Panasonic battery factory not exactly the jump start Kansans were promised | Opinion

Remember 10 years ago when Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney won a silver medal at the Olympics and made the face that launched the viral meme “McKayla is not impressed?”

That’s about the way I felt last week when we finally got confirmation that the game changing, top-secret project that’s costing us a billion dollars in state subsidies will be . . . wait for it . . . a battery factory.

It brings to mind a question: Is it possible to overpromise and underdeliver at the same time?

Apparently, with Kansas government, the answer is yes.

From the hoopla and hype under under the Capitol dome these last few months, you’d have thought we’d getting a Disneyland with a new Chiefs stadium where they’d launch SpaceX rockets from the parking lot in the off season.

Instead, some 4,000 Kansans will be making Panasonic lithium batteries for Tesla cars at the site of an abandoned Army munitions plant at De Soto, west of Lenexa.

Woo hoo, Kansas!

Gov. Laura Kelly gets the bulk of the credit(?). “Winning this project shows that Kansas has what it takes to compete on a global scale,” she said.

Be it noted that the other finalist was Pryor, Okla., an exurb of Tulsa.

Republicans can share too: Senate President Ty Masterson of Andover, who shepherded senators to approve a mammoth subsidy bill for a secret company’s secret plan, compared it to “bringing aviation to Wichita, which is still there 100 years later.”

So, the electric vehicle revolution is upon us, and in one of the most glamorous industries on the planet, we’ll be playing one of the least glamorous parts.

It’s kind of like being the person who cleans the bathrooms at Carnegie Hall. The show can’t go on without you, but you don’t want to brag about the details.

To get the $4 billion plant, we only have to pay to help Panasonic build it, train their workers, pay their workers and oh yeah, tax breaks. Lots and lots of tax breaks.

Originally, we were told landing this whale could cost as much as $1.3 billion in subsidies. Now, that’s been trimmed to an estimated $829 million of direct subsidies to Panasonic.

At these prices — a mere $207,000 per job created — how could we say no?

Of course, there will be suppliers, who will also be eligible for their own state subsidies; and housing, restaurant and shopping center developers to be fed from local government coffers.

If this ends up costing only $1.3 billion, it will be a miracle.

And like every other castle-in-the-air economic development scheme drawing public funds in this state, it’s touted as a way to keep young people from fleeing Kansas as soon as they get the chance.

We can hear children all over the state saying, “Mommy, when I grow up I want to work in a car battery factory!” And Mommy thinking, “That school really needs a new guidance counselor.”

This is not the “transformative” and “aspirational” project we were promised.

While the jobs meet the definition of high-tech, it comes with all the excitement that happens when you mix heavy equipment, hazardous materials and relentless production schedules.

Workplace injuries are uncommonly frequent at the joint Tesla/Panasonic Gigafactory 1 near Reno, Nev., according to investigative reports from the Reno Gazette Journal and USA Today.

They report that the Gigafactory avoided comprehensive safety inspections through the simple expedient of stopping inspectors at the front gate — even when they had a warrant and a sheriff’s deputy in tow — and then throwing their weight around at the state capitol in Carson City.

With all the financial and political capital invested by our state’s leaders, it’s inconceivable that Topeka will treat Panasonic any differently.

But Tesla needs batteries and somebody’s got to make them.

It might as well be us, I guess.

I just wish our state didn’t have to pay Panasonic so much for the privilege.