Economic development... What is it? | Eastern North Carolina Now

Economic development... What is it?

    I learned, in a recent national conference for County Commissioners, that economic development can be "anything you want it to be". This reinforced my opinion that we are doing it wrong, not just in Beaufort County, but in the entire state of North Carolina.

    Some counties are taking almost all of their grants and running them through an economic development department. Some heath services grants are being combined with other grants to help justify new medical facilities in blighted areas. In the rust belt, some incorporated towns and villages as large as 15,000 people have lost as much as 84 percent of their population when manufacturing moved (over seas). In some of these communities only the young and old remained because of the lack of jobs. To these areas, money to tear down abandoned commercial buildings and dwellings has been important. Removing these buildings provided open ground, and an opportunity for new development. Grants coupled with "Brown Fields" regulations allowed derelict factories to be removed, and turned into green open space while providing a new plant site.

    The existence of the conditions described in the above paragraph are testimonial to the failure of our national government during the past 40 years to protect our American prosperity. Had our liberal national leadership tried to protect jobs and industry instead of doing everything they could to ship them to foreign countries, none of the above would have happened. Our political leaders were only interested in how to get elected next term. Our industry and commerce was only interested in the next quarter's profit. None of them thought about the long haul. Wealth is always where the manufacturing, farming and mining is located. We have spread our wealth around the world. Our welfare rolls have risen while our workforce has dropped.
Beaufort County Commissioner Hood Richardson, July, 2004: Above.     photo by Stan Deatherage
    One presentation postulated that building houses is economic development because three new jobs are created for every house that is built. The presenter did not explain which came first the person who could make the mortgage payment or the jobs.

    The idea in North Carolina has been that we will make up for our high gasoline, personal and corporate income taxes, and strangle hold regulations by going into the market place and buying jobs. We do this by giving grants to companies that move into North Carolina. This has not worked. The significant sums given to companies are not large enough to guarantee the success of the business. Many have stayed a short time and then moved. The unfair thing about grants is that government decides who they favor, and companies already in business get nothing other than the tax bill for the money to pay those who compete with them for labor and materials. Grants and favoritism are always bad policy, especially considering the government does a poor job at everything it does.

    The "good old American way" works best. It is spelled out in the Constitution. It fits everything the founders tried to preserve for us. That is, individual independence, self reliance and the freedom to be happy and successful. The State of Texas is a good example. Today Texas is very successful. Texas provides low taxes, a legal system that is not abusive to business, and a low level of regulations. This is a simple formula for success. Our liberal State leaders have provided none of this.

    Our National economic development plan does not exist. There is no effort to lower taxes on business, regulations from the EPA and labor unions are strangling us, attempts by the government to get more people on welfare, increase socialistic hand outs, and failure to control narcotics are giving us a population that believes working is for dummies. The "good old American way" is dying right in front of us while the politicians fiddle.