What is Economic Development?

What is Economic Development?

Economic Development is the commitment of a community to proactively shaping their economy.

Why should you care? The declining city with declining services
In Corvallis's case, we need economic development to maintain the quality of our city, and to prevent a decline that will be precipitated by decreasing property tax revenues. Here it is not about "go go growth" and its not about huge sprawl for residential or commercial reasons, but it needs to be about replacing the businesses and jobs that are being lost. As private sector (read business) employment declines, property taxes (based on building and equipment values) also decline. Residential property taxes can't make up the difference, due to measure 5 limits. So the city has budget shortfalls, this year $2.5 million for the general fund, and in future years, even greater.

So what? Quality of Life
with property taxes declining, and basic costs going up for operating the city (like labor, electricity, etc), there is no choice but to reduce services. Those very services that make Corvallis so awesome, like bike trails, trees, parks, library, arts, human services etc.

So how do we fix it?
STABILIZE property taxes collected, focusing on business taxes, by replacing the business and jobs lost when employers downsize or leave town. This takes an active effort by the community to figure out how to "welcome" new businesses and jobs.

That is what Economic Development is about.

In Oregon, I see two approaches that are relevant to Corvallis, we can "welcome" new businesses by either 1. Growing our own or 2. Importing others.

1. Economic Gardening...a "grow your own" approach, involving nurturing start ups, spin offs, and expansion of local businesses. This is essentially an "in-fill" approach. It looks at the assets we've got, the people, resources, and skills, and gives them the support they need (training, encouragement,introductions, access to capital) to create a new business or grow the one they started.

Part of Economic Gardening is "incubating", which is taking a newly hatched business and putting the services around it that are needed to grow it. This is one small piece of the whole system...

2. Recruiting... importing other businesses to move to or create a branch here. This a process of bringing (woo-ing) existing businesses to either relocate or expand to our area. (this tends to be the classic definition of Economic development.

I think the right approach for Corvallis is clearly Economic Gardening. Its efficient, aligned with our values, and has the least impact on the culture and resources of the city.