Sure. But they're also human and put their pants on the same way as the rest of us. I've met a couple of C-suite sorts here and there. (Even had beers with one on the regular for a while.) People inject their values into their business. Making a profit probably always comes first, but folks really do care. (Especially along about the third beer.)gone corporate wrote: ↑May 20, 2021A little from Column A, a little from Column B... No one runs a for-profit business out of blind altruism.MarkHaversham wrote: ↑May 20, 2021I'm starting to think Centene wants to take a bigger payout from another state, and they're just trying to use politics to deflect blame away from their greed.
- 6,118
^This! All of it. This is a brilliant demonstration of why we need more regional (and cross state) cooperation. I honestly think things are moving in the right direction on that front. I just wish there were a way to keep the state from kicking us in the teeth all the time.gone corporate wrote: ↑May 20, 2021Seriously... Who knew that the biggest argument for "better together" was that rural reps in Jeff City have it out for STL? They're actively targeting our economic prosperity and our business community, and they don't care that they're breaking the law to do so. More than ever before, we need the City and County working together. We also need better relations with Kansas City and Columbia (Springfield may be a bridge too far).
As for blowback? My sincere hope is that these actions in Jefferson City will lead to a diametric shift in the way the MO GOP is considered where it comes to what's best for MO's business communities - most especially when it comes to funding. I bet even Rex is furious and won't be supporting outstate so long as they're gunning for STL.
this isn't wholly related to our exchange above, but something I was intrigued by. The urban/rural population split in the state has been relatively stable for 100+ years. Even when STL was the 4th biggest city in the country, MO did not have a higher percentage of an urban folks. So, same as it ever was.wabash wrote: ↑May 20, 2021One of the most infuriating parts of it all The deification of some idealized, antiquated, gun-toting rugged individual and complete opposition to letting local counties and cities tax their own gas, cigarettes, liquor, ammunition, plastic bags, etc...soulardx wrote: ↑May 20, 2021consider the double-speak on "local" control.
"Local control" is only good so long as it means implicit support for guys like Joe Arpaio and Cliven Bundy. As soon as it empowers urban centers government intervention is suddenly the answer.
- 805
Well, sort of. The sprawl of the last 70 years definitely has changed the strength of the urban constituency.soulardx wrote:this isn't wholly related to our exchange above, but something I was intrigued by. The urban/rural population split in the state has been relatively stable for 100+ years. Even when STL was the 4th biggest city in the country, MO did not have a higher percentage of an urban folks. So, same as it ever was.wabash wrote: ↑May 20, 2021One of the most infuriating parts of it all The deification of some idealized, antiquated, gun-toting rugged individual and complete opposition to letting local counties and cities tax their own gas, cigarettes, liquor, ammunition, plastic bags, etc...soulardx wrote: ↑May 20, 2021consider the double-speak on "local" control.
"Local control" is only good so long as it means implicit support for guys like Joe Arpaio and Cliven Bundy. As soon as it empowers urban centers government intervention is suddenly the answer.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Fair. I used "urban" when "large metro" would be more appropriate.SeattleNative wrote: ↑May 21, 2021Well, sort of. The sprawl of the last 70 years definitely has changed the strength of the urban constituency.soulardx wrote:this isn't wholly related to our exchange above, but something I was intrigued by. The urban/rural population split in the state has been relatively stable for 100+ years. Even when STL was the 4th biggest city in the country, MO did not have a higher percentage of an urban folks. So, same as it ever was.wabash wrote: ↑May 20, 2021One of the most infuriating parts of it all The deification of some idealized, antiquated, gun-toting rugged individual and complete opposition to letting local counties and cities tax their own gas, cigarettes, liquor, ammunition, plastic bags, etc...
"Local control" is only good so long as it means implicit support for guys like Joe Arpaio and Cliven Bundy. As soon as it empowers urban centers government intervention is suddenly the answer.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Is this true? I'd love to see some statistics on that.soulardx wrote: ↑May 21, 2021this isn't wholly related to our exchange above, but something I was intrigued by. The urban/rural population split in the state has been relatively stable for 100+ years. Even when STL was the 4th biggest city in the country, MO did not have a higher percentage of an urban folks. So, same as it ever was.wabash wrote: ↑May 20, 2021One of the most infuriating parts of it all The deification of some idealized, antiquated, gun-toting rugged individual and complete opposition to letting local counties and cities tax their own gas, cigarettes, liquor, ammunition, plastic bags, etc...soulardx wrote: ↑May 20, 2021consider the double-speak on "local" control.
"Local control" is only good so long as it means implicit support for guys like Joe Arpaio and Cliven Bundy. As soon as it empowers urban centers government intervention is suddenly the answer.
Bill McClellan once said St. Louis should secede from Missouri. I always thought that was dumb, but this Centene debacle makes that seem more prescient.
- 6,118
St. Louis had a whole lot of recent arrivals from elsewhere then, though. A lot of immigrants. A lot of easterners heading west. A lot of eager industrialists. And there was more connection between St. Louis and outstate Missouri. Folks working at the railroad shops in De Soto, Springfield, Sedalia, and Moberly reported back to HQs in St. Louis. Farmers in Mexico and Centralia sold their corn to Purina or their hogs to National Stockyards. Now folks from rural MO more or less bypass St. Louis and deal direct with even bigger companies elsewhere. (If they can afford it, anyway.) The gap between the haves and have nots has only increased, and a lot of rural MO has not. So you want to stick it to those stupid city elites that ruined your life. And St. Louis is convenient. No, it's not St. Louis ruining their lives now. It's Minneapolis, Chicago, and Bentonville. But I'm not sure they even know that. And all they know about St. Louis is that it's dangerous and filled with urban and liberal people. (And maybe that the Cardinals play here.) So even if they miss their true antagonists it's not like they recognize that the folks they're hurting have little more than they. Maybe less. The loss of connections has hurt us. The wholesale bypassing of the middle has hurt us terribly. (And enriched a few very fancy people in fancier places.)soulardx wrote: ↑May 21, 2021The urban/rural population split in the state has been relatively stable for 100+ years. Even when STL was the 4th biggest city in the country, MO did not have a higher percentage of an urban folks. So, same as it ever was.
So, I was mistaken in my comments on the historical St. Louis metro population versus the State population. In 1900, Missouri had 3.1 million people and St. Louis City & Country had 625K. So, STL was 20% of the state. Now, Missouri has about 6.2 million people and the Missouri side of the STL metro has about 2.1 million. So, STL is 33% of the state. Still, in 2020, those 2.1 million people seem to have disproportionally little power in state politics.
Also, Bill McClellan's latest column channels my own thinking quite well. Many (most?) citizens in our state do not want any more people overall and especially no more people in the cities.
McClellan: Missouri has a secret weapon to avoid population explosion
https://www.stltoday.com/news/subscribe ... op-story-1
Also, Bill McClellan's latest column channels my own thinking quite well. Many (most?) citizens in our state do not want any more people overall and especially no more people in the cities.
McClellan: Missouri has a secret weapon to avoid population explosion
https://www.stltoday.com/news/subscribe ... op-story-1
This is why KC and StL should cooperate more. They tip the scales to around 50%+ of the population and a whole bunch of the economic opportunity. This isn't even a red v. blue issue, but just focusing on aligned interests to be pursued. It doesn't help KCMO if Centene jumps ship
What a tragedy it would be if Centene moved. It is the linchpin in St. Louis' healthcare industry.
In terms of revenue, I believe next up would be SSM Health (or BJC), which is dwarfed by Centene in terms of revenue.
No other healthcare company - pubic or private is larger.
At $85-billion, Express Scripts is still a subsidiary of Cigna.
The residual impact of a departure would be enormous. Lost jobs at HQs, lost regional support jobs and revenue, lost housing, increased corporate vacancy, a likely reduction of corporate support for local civic endeavors.
Not to mention more national embarrassment and the potential/risk for other firms to follow suit. Stan Kroneke could easily say, " I was right. See I told you so."
Parsons is stupidly eyeball-rolling and seems pretty cocksure about Michael Neidorff's intentions to stay put.
I wouldn't be surprised if relocation paperwork is being expedited and done in secret.
Parsons and Missouri are underestimating the competitive temperature to lure corporate HQs at the moment - as well as the temperament of an 80yo man.
Don't think Neidorff is bluffing. He has options.
Article: Parson acknowledges frustrations with halted Medicaid expansion after CEO of benefits company questions staying in Missouri
In terms of revenue, I believe next up would be SSM Health (or BJC), which is dwarfed by Centene in terms of revenue.
No other healthcare company - pubic or private is larger.
At $85-billion, Express Scripts is still a subsidiary of Cigna.
The residual impact of a departure would be enormous. Lost jobs at HQs, lost regional support jobs and revenue, lost housing, increased corporate vacancy, a likely reduction of corporate support for local civic endeavors.
Not to mention more national embarrassment and the potential/risk for other firms to follow suit. Stan Kroneke could easily say, " I was right. See I told you so."
Parsons is stupidly eyeball-rolling and seems pretty cocksure about Michael Neidorff's intentions to stay put.
I wouldn't be surprised if relocation paperwork is being expedited and done in secret.
Parsons and Missouri are underestimating the competitive temperature to lure corporate HQs at the moment - as well as the temperament of an 80yo man.
Don't think Neidorff is bluffing. He has options.
Article: Parson acknowledges frustrations with halted Medicaid expansion after CEO of benefits company questions staying in Missouri
- 3,762
"He's the CEO and he can say what he wants to say," Parson said later after an event at the St. Louis Science Center. "It’s his company, but I think right now we need to see what's going to happen. But I'm very confident. Centene is a huge corporate partner here in St. Louis and we want to keep him in this state. We want to keep people working here."
"weyell, golly. we gotta jus' let Jebus do the drivin' and see w'ere y'all end up." unreal."You know it's unfortunate that everybody wasn't happy with decisions that were made, but that's part of the process," Parson said. "We just have to keep moving forward and I'm confident Centene will, too. I know they are disappointed, but at the end of the day it's what people decided in the legislature. And that's part of the process. We've got to deal with this."
^ What an absolute f*cking idiot Mike Parson is.
“I think it’s too early to talk about headquarters leaving...” Seriously?
“I think it’s too early to talk about headquarters leaving...” Seriously?
"....at the end of the day it's what people decided in the legislature."sc4mayor wrote: ↑May 24, 2021^ What an absolute f*cking idiot Mike Parson is.
“I think it’s too early to talk about headquarters leaving...” Seriously?
Failing to mention that the legislature's decision was to ignore the voters' decision. The voters are your constituents Mike, stand up for their interests.
- 2,928
Arch City's thecentersquare.com article (solid read) mentioned that Governor Parson's comments came while he was speaking at an event for the STL Regional Business Council... which I bet are fuming at the actions of the MO General Assembly - and the Governor himself - for the egregious treatment of our state's largest public company. He's trying to give window-dressing to the asshat actions of the General Assembly, whose outstate majority are too politically extreme and self-righteous to ever doubt their actions would not be what's best and proper for the majority, hence their willingness to negate the specific will of the electorate and desire to take it to court. Here's hoping that the RBC's members have full recall of all of this when candidates of future elections come to them for funding.
What grinds my gears beyond belief is just how fast and loose these Jeff City morons are playing chicken with Centene, with Parson speculating that the company will stay put because, why again? The damn company's building a giant new campus in another city at this very moment! Meanwhile, these halfwits are saying they're funding foster care, and that this should take care of Medicare recipients more than enough to satisfy everyone... I miss when the MO GOP was made of people who had business degrees and not Bible college degrees.
Centene hasn't announced fully that they intend to move, and I really have hope they'll stay, but I certainly won't make any personal bets on whether they'll stay in Clayton or move the C-Suite to the Tarheel State. Bunch of Outstate idiots... Did McClellan ever outline how STL could leave MO?
What grinds my gears beyond belief is just how fast and loose these Jeff City morons are playing chicken with Centene, with Parson speculating that the company will stay put because, why again? The damn company's building a giant new campus in another city at this very moment! Meanwhile, these halfwits are saying they're funding foster care, and that this should take care of Medicare recipients more than enough to satisfy everyone... I miss when the MO GOP was made of people who had business degrees and not Bible college degrees.
Centene hasn't announced fully that they intend to move, and I really have hope they'll stay, but I certainly won't make any personal bets on whether they'll stay in Clayton or move the C-Suite to the Tarheel State. Bunch of Outstate idiots... Did McClellan ever outline how STL could leave MO?
- 1,868
Maybe Neidorff shouldn't donate so much money to Republicans then lol.
Noticed today there is a big Chase branch coming soon wrap on the ground floor.
- 2,928
I'm pretty sure he's registered as a Democrat, at least according to my friends at the MO DEM Party.MarkHaversham wrote: ↑May 24, 2021Maybe Neidorff shouldn't donate so much money to Republicans then lol.
Either way, here's 20 years of his past political contributions. You can see that he's supported more DEMs than GOPers, although he most definitely has supported both. Regarding GOP contributions, I personally like how he's responsible for contributions to John Kasich, Tim Scott, and Ben Sasse; concurrently, I see these guys as GOP, not GQP. There's a difference.
For the new facility, seems like they had some sort of ribbon cutting/presser yesterday in Charlotte.
https://charlotte.axios.com/262707/fort ... te-campus/
Centene executives say the campus will eventually accommodate 6,000 employees, nearly twice its originally promised amount. When asked whether this means Centene could move its global headquarters to Charlotte, CEO Michael Neidorff said it is possible.
https://charlotte.axios.com/262707/fort ... te-campus/
Centene executives say the campus will eventually accommodate 6,000 employees, nearly twice its originally promised amount. When asked whether this means Centene could move its global headquarters to Charlotte, CEO Michael Neidorff said it is possible.
- “This is a great facility. We’ll see how things evolve,” Neidorff said. “Everything’s always on the table, but right now we have a wonderful headquarters (in St. Louis).”
Yup, pretty sure that's his goal at this point. Neidorff has the campus built in Clayton with the additional phases on hold, and a brand new huge facility in Charlotte, he can run HQ from either, but it's going to be whoever gives him the best deal.
And with how the MO State legislature in Jeff City has already pissed them off by not expanding medicare like it was voted for, and their love of sticking it to St. Louis any chance they get, I highly doubt any help will come from the State on keeping one of it's largest companies HQ'd here.
And with how the MO State legislature in Jeff City has already pissed them off by not expanding medicare like it was voted for, and their love of sticking it to St. Louis any chance they get, I highly doubt any help will come from the State on keeping one of it's largest companies HQ'd here.
- 2,928
^The MO GOP really risk being labeled the party that doesn't support big business if they drive CNC out of STL/MO. They'd risk the unified voice of Missouri's corporations supporting their opposition, including the rural reps who seek out election funds from the State's big companies. The MO Republican party would definitely take hits, and I believe the MO DEMs are already circling their wagons here.
Related: Gov. Parson is calling MOGA back into session to address the Medicaid funding. Also, a Cole County (i.e. Jeff City) judge is anticipated to rule on one of the lawsuits by the end of this week. I anticipate the Medicaid issue will end with the State adopting the Federal program support. It seems the MO GOP is just dancing around the idea that the State's laws are superior to the Country's laws, both with this Medicaid issue (Federal program and all) as well as their recent Second Amendment prancing (which the Governor signed about a week ago, and is probably going to be voided any day now). My hope is that CNC sees the MOGA actions as not targeting them but being just political theater, leading to their retaining the Clayton HQ - and maybe even doing the whole build-out, knock wood.
Also, as npav wrote, I agree that Neidorff & CNC will likely get STL/MO pitted with CLT/NC for more funding. I don't like it, but it's not like I can blame him.
Related: Gov. Parson is calling MOGA back into session to address the Medicaid funding. Also, a Cole County (i.e. Jeff City) judge is anticipated to rule on one of the lawsuits by the end of this week. I anticipate the Medicaid issue will end with the State adopting the Federal program support. It seems the MO GOP is just dancing around the idea that the State's laws are superior to the Country's laws, both with this Medicaid issue (Federal program and all) as well as their recent Second Amendment prancing (which the Governor signed about a week ago, and is probably going to be voided any day now). My hope is that CNC sees the MOGA actions as not targeting them but being just political theater, leading to their retaining the Clayton HQ - and maybe even doing the whole build-out, knock wood.
Also, as npav wrote, I agree that Neidorff & CNC will likely get STL/MO pitted with CLT/NC for more funding. I don't like it, but it's not like I can blame him.
- 3,762
^ i blame him. i'm tired of sh*tty, destructive, psychopathic behavior disguised as "business."
^ I agree. I also think the HQ is pretty much tied up for Charlotte. Why wouldn’t it be?
Clayton is a great place to do business…especially as a Fortune 500. But when the state is dead set on taking a sh*t on your business model…why wouldn’t you leave?
Neidorff would be an idiot to stay here, HQ wise.
Nobody likes to hear that, but it’s true. Take all of St. Louis’ regional bullsh*t and put it aside… Missouri’s Republicans just told Centene (a f*cking Fortune 25 company) to piss off.
I hope they leave…and that they rub Parson’s and particularly Andrew Koenig’s face in it. Like a dog who sh*ts on the rug.
Clayton is a great place to do business…especially as a Fortune 500. But when the state is dead set on taking a sh*t on your business model…why wouldn’t you leave?
Neidorff would be an idiot to stay here, HQ wise.
Nobody likes to hear that, but it’s true. Take all of St. Louis’ regional bullsh*t and put it aside… Missouri’s Republicans just told Centene (a f*cking Fortune 25 company) to piss off.
I hope they leave…and that they rub Parson’s and particularly Andrew Koenig’s face in it. Like a dog who sh*ts on the rug.
I hope they don’t leave. Them leaving and “rubbing anyone’s face in it” won’t change anything. Except cost the region jobs. So I’d rather just not see it happen.sc4mayor wrote: ↑Jun 22, 2021^ I agree. I also think the HQ is pretty much tied up for Charlotte. Why wouldn’t it be?
Clayton is a great place to do business…especially as a Fortune 500. But when the state is dead set on taking a sh*t on your business model…why wouldn’t you leave?
Neidorff would be an idiot to stay here, HQ wise.
Nobody likes to hear that, but it’s true. Take all of St. Louis’ regional bullsh*t and put it aside… Missouri’s Republicans just told Centene (a f*cking Fortune 25 company) to piss off.
I hope they leave…and that they rub Parson’s and particularly Andrew Koenig’s face in it. Like a dog who sh*ts on the rug.
^ Yeah you’re right. Definitely should have worded that better. I don’t want them to leave…but listening to the state’s AG office attempt to defend themselves in court is so damn embarrassing, I just can’t see this happening any other way.
And honestly Andrew Koenig, Mike Parson and the rest of MoLeg who refused to see the will of the voters (regardless of what Centene does) deserve to have their faces rubbed into the consequences of their actions.
And honestly Andrew Koenig, Mike Parson and the rest of MoLeg who refused to see the will of the voters (regardless of what Centene does) deserve to have their faces rubbed into the consequences of their actions.