Job Creation
Former Studebaker plant, South Bend, IN, © Kay Westhues
Economic development officials should pay more attention to enhancing the economic and educational opportunities of existing small businesses and residents. This would involve, for example, assisting small businesses, improving educational and apprenticeship opportunities for county residents, helping areas suffering from underinvestment, and, in general, improving the quality of life in the county.
Consider stimulation of job growth through a grant program for small business owners who will commit to creating new jobs. For example, $3,000,000, the equivalent of approximately one year of TIF revenue, could fund 100 successful applicants at $30,000 each, or 30 grants of $100,000 each. Another method of investment in business growth could be providing business incubator sites that are fully staffed, programed, mentored, and funded, for new entrepreneurs.
Encourage entrepreneurs, especially minorities, who renovate housing and train and hire workers in the building trades. There are currently numerous good paying job opportunities available for those who have the necessary training. What are some ways that the county can support these ventures?
Responsible Development
Develop brownfields, not greenfields
From OSAA finance report The Risks of, and Alternatives to, a Flawed Economic Development Model Finance Report:
“The flawed economic development model causes other problems. Probably the most important of these is its misunderstanding of the meaning of economic development. What the model takes to be economic development is really economic growth. Economic growth is simply an increase in the value of goods and services produced. It says nothing about the usefulness of the goods and services, and it may be accompanied by a worsening of the distribution of income and wealth. On the other hand, true economic development has to improve people’s lives, not harm them. And since the residents of the New Carlisle area are firmly of the opinion that the IEC will harm them and their quality of life, it cannot be considered economic development.”