A good long weekend off. I hope you all were able to get outside too. Daily computer visits can rot your brain!
I found the overview of Longmont's economic vision described in the Times Call to be very prompting to look at other East BoCo communities' methods of economic planning. I have found the notion of "primary employers" to be lost on most people - not always as much on employees of primary employers, but certainly on employees and even owners of non-primary employers. Worse, I've found the notion to be foreign to members of Planning Boards and Councils.
The idea of maintaining a certain ratio of such jobs in a town as a way to have a sustainable local economy is fascinating. There are so many variables, so many macro economic factors at play and yet local efforts - fee waivers, tax rebates, incentives and just plain personal rapport and interest - can make a huge difference.
Longmont has had a request to research the impact of "underemployment"; the people making wages too low t be able to easily afford living in that city. That deserves another post; I'll save that one for later.
Tonight, Louisville's City Council will review and vote on various Business Assistance packages for certain developments. In Lafayette, the deals to retain WalMart are well known; the failed re-location of the Cheese Importers here shows how tenuous such deals can be. Erie is debating how much it should charge in impact fees with a mini-uprising of dissent on that front.
All these discussion are great because they tend to jar even the most barely aware citizen out of their fog and they start to ask questions about where "the money" comes from and how it is prioitized to be spent. Just like they do at home. And having that awareness is a big step towards having a viable community. Look for the given candidates in each Council race to show some level of understanding of this concept- otherwise, you'll vote in "one-hit wonders" with an agenda and a short list of interests.
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Let's be clear on the definition of a primary employer. Primary employers are generally considered those who manufacture or create products locally that are sold outside of the city limits.
Retailers and restaurants wouldn't qualify under this definition, in most cases. Cheese Importers may, or may not qualify, depending on how much they sell online, or at wholesale, compared to their retail sales.
One of the business assistance requests in Louisville is for a restaurant. Restaurants and bars have come and gone so many times in downtown Louisville, how could they possibly believe that subsidizing a new one will change anything? And, this isn't a primary employer, so what's the investment for?
Must be "let's fill the space at any cost". Same mistake Lafayette made when they struck the deal with the Cheese guy.
As I've said before, small town government will most often lose any negotiation with a major retailer, and/or developer. They just don't have the experience to negotiate with these guys. Typically, small town governments declare a victory when the retailer/developer gets exactly what they want. Then, they end up making statements like, "What are we going to do, foreclose? Take it back?"
The answer to that question, by the way, is Yes.
The article was printed by Lehman again in the Lafayette News B section this week.
It's pretty hard to extract a forumla for economic development from theories about primary employment. For example, the article notes that the service sector is big in Boulder County. That's something other than a traditional primary employer. And, if there is such a thing as a "Creative Class," it is probably present in Boulder County. Are those endeavors primary employment, or the seeds of primary employment?
It seems that there are a lot of niche opportunities in BoCo, and a robust primary employment sector doesn't hurt, ever... But a very tough topic. Everyone wants to have that secret formula, but it is elusive.
Lafayette got a big new primary/niche employer in the health care industry with Exempla/Kaiser moving into town. Has that made a difference? Has it been a good idea to provide city tax rebates to nearby primary employers with few conditions? Should we measure ROI? Is it a good idea to rebate almost three times as much as the total cost of the SuperWalMart incentives to bring potentially duplicative retail tax base into the city?
These are VERY tough questions, but you can't ignore them if you're at the helm in the City of Lafayette. And if you are never willing to find the right risk, and execute a plan, then economic development is not in your vocabulary. Right now, the City of Lafayette is carrying the cost of a lot of unproductive real estate on South Boulder Road. On the one hand, it's laudable that the City took the initiative to try to spark some reinvestment in the area; on the other, it may be time to look at the problem freshly, hopefully with more than one possible commericial interest in more than one vacant strip mall as the scope and engine behind the new plan.
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