Economic development winners and losers

Published March 29, 2015

by  Jill Swain, Mayor of Huntersville and chair Metropolitan Mayors, published in Asheville Citizen-Times, March 28, 2015.

It’s the time of year that North Carolinians love with such passion — March Madness. We choose our favorite teams, follow the drama, celebrate the wins and mourn the losses.

And while we each may have favorite teams, there is a pride we share when any North Carolina team advances. That mentality should be the same for our legislative policies. The rhetoric of “urban versus rural” shouldn’t be in our collective vocabularies. In fact, when it comes to economic success, we should be rooting for the same team — North Carolina.

One proposal in the legislature currently under discussion seeks to redistribute sales tax revenue to funnel more dollars to rural communities. Currently, a portion of sales tax collections are distributed to counties based mostly on where the sale occurs. The redistribution plan would change that formula to redirect the sales tax dollars from where people shop to where they live.

These changes would punish the largely metropolitan counties that use those sales tax dollars to build and maintain the infrastructure and emergency response needs on those roads.

According to projections by legislative staff, Wake County and its cities and towns would collectively see a drop of about $18 million, or 13 percent. Mecklenburg County and its towns and cities would lose about $35 million, a 16 percent drop.

That’s real money for growing areas with growing needs. Currently, cities have limited revenue-raising options for filling those budget gaps. Legislators have suggested that metro cities and counties can raise property taxes to offset the losses. Raising property taxes could have a chilling effect on attracting future development to North Carolina.

As leaders and as citizens, we must realize that economic development is not “winner take all.” We can’t continue to operate under the assumption that North Carolina’s cities, towns and counties compete against one another for resources, for jobs or for opportunities, when the reality is that our state competes against other states for economic opportunities.

When we pick winners and losers through income redistribution, we divide our state.

Instead, we should create a strategy for growth and opportunity that builds on all our strengths. Each region of our state needs a strategic economic development plan based on their regional assets and workforce.

Let’s build economic development strategies around the job centers in rural parts of our state that currently exist, like Hickory, Jacksonville and Rocky Mount. Let’s invest in what each of those job centers needs in terms of education, infrastructure and marketing. Let’s use our state’s new transportation strategy of “hub and spoke” to get as many folks as we can within a reasonable commute of a job center.

For more than 20 years, our state has invested hundreds of millions in various strategies to support rural North Carolina. And yet, our rural areas are still struggling with high unemployment, lack of opportunities and shrinking populations. Instead of picking winners and losers, let’s develop a strategy that aims to raise all boats.

Let’s leave the brackets to basketball and develop a strategy that makes real progress toward one North Carolina. The metro regions of the state are prepared to do our part to help those struggling with high unemployment and lack of opportunity — we believe in shared successes, and wins for everyone. The Metro Mayors Coalition stands ready to work with the legislature to develop a plan that will advance all of North Carolina.

Jill Swain is the mayor of Huntersville and the chair of the N.C. Metropolitan Mayors Coalition.

Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer is also the vice chair of the N.C. Metropolitan Mayors Coalition.

 http://www.citizen-times.com/story/opinion/columnists/2015/03/28/mayors-economic-development-winners-losers/70587954/

March 29, 2015 at 1:35 pm
Richard L Bunce says:

"When we pick winners and losers through income redistribution, we divide our state."

I agree with that 100%. True at all levels of government and the income redistribution is usually initiated by Democratic party member office holders.