EXPANSION COMING: At Dassault.

  • EXPANSION COMING: At Dassault.

Gov. Mike Beebe will makes some news Wednesday morning.

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1) For one thing, he’ll appoint someone to serve as state treasurer through 2014. Martha Shoffner resigned last week in the face of a federal charge she’d taken gotten money from a securities broker to whom she’d steered business.

2) The Economic Development Commission announces that the governor will join Dassault Falcon Jet officials for a “significant investment/expansion announcement.” It’s unknown at this time if the expansion will take the workforce beyond the level it reached before a layoff of around 100 workers in 2009. The business jet finishing operation employed about 1,900 in 2010, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. The company had said in March that a new jet model might lead to a hangar expansion in Little Rock that could add 100 to 200 jobs. At the time of that announcement, Dassault was said to employ about 1,500.

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A state spokesman, in response to a question about whether incentives go for new jobs at a company that still might employ fewer than it once did, said the announcement would “stabilize and secure” the Dassault operation for the future.