WKRN, Nashville, Tennessee News, Weather, and Sports |Governor says GM wants cash to bring small car to Spring Hill

Governor says GM wants cash to bring small car to Spring Hill

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen said Thursday he's not as hopeful as he once was Spring Hill will be producing General Motors' new small car after learning GM wants cash upfront.

The governor, along with Tennessee Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker and Rep. Lincoln Davis, met with GM officials in Washington earlier this week.

Bredesen said the automaker doesn't care about tax credits and only wants to know how large a check the state is willing to write upfront.

"This is for them right now," he said Thursday upon returning from Washington.  "[It's] all about frontend money."

GM is considering three plants including Spring Hill to build its new small car.

Assembly plants in Janesville, Wisconsin and Orion Township, Michigan are also in the running.

Governor Bredesen said he and his staff have some serious thinking to do about how they will respond to GM's request.

"The numbers that they were talking about are well outside of what I think we can do today, in terms of with the budget situation we have," Bredesen said.  "That's not something we've traditionally done and I don't need to tell you, given the conversation we've just been having, this is not a year in which I've got a spare couple hundred million dollars lying around in the rainy day fund for something like this."

The Spring Hill plant will go idle in November when production of the Chevrolet Traverse shifts to a plant in Michigan.

GM has said it will decide in the coming weeks where to build the small car.

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