UNTIL ABOUT TWO weeks ago, the biggest thing that ever happened to Tupelo, Miss., took place on Jan. 8, 1935, when a sharecropper’s son was born in a two-room house. Elvis Presley went on to radically change the world’s popular music with his raw mix of blues, gospel and country — a concoction called rock ’n’ roll.

But since late last month, Tupelo has had something else quite momentous to celebrate.

On Feb. 27, the Japanese auto giant Toyota announced it will build a $1.3 billion plant 10 miles northwest of the Mississippi town, to produce as many as 150,000 Highlander sport-utility vehicles a year. Construction is set to start this fall. By 2011, the plant is expected to employ 2,000 people, with a $122 million annual payroll, according to the Mississippi Development Authority.

Those 2,000 jobs will have a dramatic “multiplier effect,” boosting business throughout the area. The state expects that 10 more companies will open facilities in three or four years to serve as major suppliers to the plant — providing everything from brackets to seat materials to other doodads that go into cars.

There is something in it for Tupelo’s public schools, too. In addition to a vastly improved job market for graduates, Toyota is pledging to donate $50 million to schools of Pontotoc, Union and Lee counties.

How did northeastern Mississippi grab such a golden opportunity, while northeastern America — including Rhode Island — failed even to enter the contest? After all, we have a skilled and educated workforce, a terrific quality of life, excellent institutions of higher learning, and a superb location in the East Coast megalopolis.

It’s not hard to figure that one out. The very smart people who choose sites for manufacturing plants look no further than Rhode Island’s high corporate and personal taxes, anti-business climate, struggling public schools, industrial-strength NIMBYism and political corruption.

Who needs such headaches when there are other places that are actually serious about attracting jobs?

Six years ago, Pontotoc, Union and Lee counties banded together in something called the PUL Alliance for the specific purpose of luring a major plant to their region. They found and prepared a site — a hilly, stumpy 1,700-acre plot they named Wellspring, in Blue Springs, Miss. They discussed incentives that would be needed, and worked on infrastructure.

Gov. Haley Barbour aggressively promoted Mississippi. During regular visits to New York, he met with Toyota officials to tout his state’s welcoming business climate. He planned a $300 million aid package, including site improvement and training of prospective workers and suppliers. He brought officials to Mississippi to study local manufacturing plants and interview the workforce, many of whom had worked in furniture factories that relocated to China.

“What I discovered were people who were educated, ethical and friendly with a strong work ethic — a perfect match for the Toyota way,” Toyota Executive Vice President Ray Tanguay told The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.

It probably didn’t hurt that Mississippi’s Trent Lott became Senate minority whip, potentially a powerful ally for Toyota in Washington.

Now, consider Rhode Island.

While other states are enjoying budget surpluses during the prolonged economic expansion, the Ocean State faces record deficits.

Its culture of NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard) is so bad that the state must engage in a prolonged struggle merely to extend the main runway at the airport, a crucial engine of business. New England suffers from high energy costs, while its politicians fight against the transport of liquefied natural gas, which has a superb safety record. Meanwhile, Governor Carcieri, bowing to local opposition, refused to exploit the potential of a thriving port at Quonset Point.

And, while American carmakers are saddled with “legacy costs” of economically uncompetitive union contracts they have negotiated, Toyota has never been successfully organized by a union. By 2010, it will be making cars and trucks, or engines and parts, in 10 mostly Southern states: Mississippi, Kentucky, California, Indiana, Texas, Alabama, West Virginia, Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas. Toyota employees seem highly pleased with their high-paying manufacturing jobs and their good if not gold-plated benefits — regarding them, not surprisingly, as vastly preferable to none at all. Rhode Island’s General Assembly, meanwhile, behaves at times like a wholly owned subsidiary of labor unions rather than a body supposed to represent all the people. Who needs that nonsense?

There is a reason that high-tax, business-unfriendly states are having a tough time attracting manufacturing jobs in the era of global competition. To get back in the game, Rhode Island will have to get its government spending under control, lower taxes, purge some of its mindlessly anti-business laws, and be willing to exploit the economic and other advantages it has.

Obviously, it’s got an awful lot of work to do before it can start giving its citizens the kind of good news that the Birthplace of Elvis will be celebrating for years to come.

Edward Achorn is The Journal’s deputy editorial-pages editor ( eachorn@projo.com).