to the filming of more than 400 movies in
Baton Rouge, including last year’s Best Picture Academy
Award winner, Green Book. The World War II Navy drama
Greyhound, written by and starring Tom Hanks, was shot
there last year too, due to be released in 2020. Numer-
ous TV shows are based in Louisiana, too, among them
CBS’s NCIS New Orleans and TNT’s Claws.
Long before Louisiana’s screen career, however,music reigned supreme. The state is known as the
birthplace of jazz and is home to Cajun music and
zydeco. Music is big business here, with state-of-the
art recording studios, a plethora of skilled musicians,
and its own government incentive programs.The Louisiana Economic Outlook has pro-
jected that the state will add 23,400 jobs in 2019
and 36,000 in 2020. According to the report, “If
our projections are on the mark, the state should
surpass 2 million jobs on an annual basis for the
first time in its history in 2019.” An Economic
Outlook Summit business panel convened in
January by Baton Rouge–based newspaper
The Advocate was similarly upbeat—though
it cautioned that Louisiana’s rosy economic
picture could be muddied by falling energy
prices or punishing national tariffs.
Edwards fully recognizes that, despite Louisiana’s
ongoing improvement, the state still confronts chal-
lenges. “We’re not perfect. We’re not doing an end-zone
dance,” he says. “But we have a tremendous business
climate here with a low tax burden and the most pro-
ductive workforce in the country, which we’ve deter-
mined from census data.
“We’re confident we’re on a much better path.
There’s a lot of work left to do, but we can now meet
challenges from a position of strength.”■LOUISIANA STATE
UNIVERSITYÕS EIGHT-
CAMPUS SYSTEM GENER-
ATES AN ANNUAL IMPACT
OF MORE THAN $5 BILLION
IN LOUISIANA.
SPONSORED CONTENT
With over $3 billion of investments in Louisiana over the last
several years, Westlake Chemical is invested in the state!
Additionally, with one-third of our global workforce based in
Louisiana, Westlake is among the state’s largest chemical
manufacturing employers. Starting from one plant in Sulphur in
1986, today Westlake operates six Louisiana facilities in Geismar,
Lake Charles and Plaquemine. A seventh facility, a joint venture,
comes online in 2019. We are proud to support the communities
in Ascension, Calcasieu and Iberville parishes, where our 3,200
employees and core contractors live and work. (NYSE: WLK)Invested in Louisiana