Tennessee made its case to GM this week in a submission by the state's Department of Economic and Community Development, but state officials stopped short of calling it a "bid."
GM has said that it will make a decision among the three plants — the others are in Janesville, Wis., and Orion, Mich. — by the end of June and that one of them will be retooled to assemble up to 160,000 of a new small car annually beginning in 2011.
From a purely business standpoint, General Motors Corp.'s Spring Hill plant seems to have a solid edge over the competing facilities to become the production site for a new GM subcompact car, union leaders, economic development officials and analysts agree.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has told GM that the state isn't ready to write the automaker a check to keep auto production going in Spring Hill, even though officials from Wisconsin and Michigan have indicated they are willing to come up with at least some money to support their efforts to land the deal.
"I have sent a detailed response outlining what the governor and I see as a clear business case for utilizing Spring Hill to assemble the new vehicle," Economic Development Commissioner Matt Kisber said Thursday in response to a question from The Tennessean.
Kisber declined to say whether any specific financial considerations were mentioned in the state's submission, noting that it's the state's policy "not to discuss proposals to individual companies."
But Frank Tamberrino, president of the regional economic development group Maury Alliance, which has been heavily involved in past dealings with GM in Spring Hill, said Tennessee doesn't need to offer more than it already has to make the plant ready for the new small car.
