|
|
|
 |
|
Home / Washington Business - July/August 2003 / The Summit you shouldn’t miss |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
The Summit you shouldn’t miss |
|
|
|
Written On: July/August 2003 |
|
|
|
Written By: By Heidi Stanley - Chair, AWB Board |
|
|
|
There is an old adage that “Failing to plan is a plan to fail.”
Anyone in business or the military will tell you about the necessity of a well-thought-out and coordinated plan with goals, benchmarks, contingencies and measurements. That’s “Effectiveness 101” and it is taught at every college and university from West Point to Pullman—and it works!
But strange as it may seem, Washington has no such state plan for economic development. Instead, we have several local strategies that often are at odds with one another. Not only are our economic development strategies fragmented, they are not
well funded.
It is a glaring weakness that has not gone unnoticed by our competitors and our goal is to change that starting with this Policy Summit.
Too often other better-organized states and provinces will pit Spokane against Tacoma or Grays Harbor against Walla Walla to secure an employer and its accompanying jobs. That isn’t good for our struggling communities or our state and we need to do something about it. However, without a coordinated statewide plan, that’s what will continue to happen by default.
Economic development commission formed
Gov. Locke and the Legislature set the wheels in motion to rectify that problem with the passage of House Bill 1509 this year. It creates the state’s Economic Develop Commission, which is supposed to coordinate our recruitment and retention efforts and bring all of the state’s resources together to close the deal. The commission can also make the case to adequately fund economic development in our state.
The commission has some of the state’s top business leaders as members. Scott Morris, president of Avista, chairs the commission and former AWB Board Chair Mack Hogans,
Senior Vice President of Weyerhaeuser is also a member. So AWB has a couple of oars in the water already to help move our ship of state along its course.
The commission’s focus needs to be the next step in our association’s competitiveness efforts. We need to take the issues identified by the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy (WashACE), which AWB formed in conjunction with the Roundtable and Washington Research Council and the Governor’s Competitiveness Council combine them with the natural advantages our state enjoys and come out of the summit with a plan.
The Governor and Legislature responded To their credit, Gov. Locke and the Legislature struggled to develop a state budget even though revenues were down by $2.7 billion. They certainly didn’t make matters worse by raising taxes and fees like they did in 1993.
In fact, the Governor and Legislature added fairness to our tax system by requiring local governments to apply the B&O tax uniformly and providing incentives to stimulate manufacturing and research and development.
While we still have a long way to go when it comes to bringing energy, workers comp, unemployment, health care, regulations and liability insurance costs under control, there are some positive things in which we can build our state’s economic development plan. We also must address education to make sure that we have the resources targeted in the right places.
Simply, we must do what is takes for our businesses and workers to complete globally.
The Summit will be different this year That brings me to this year’s Policy Summit. It will be different. At the last couple summits, we’ve addressed competitiveness. In many ways we’ve focused on the problems our states faces. Now we want to zero in on the plan to make our state an attractive place to invest and create jobs.
When we leave the Policy Summit this year we will take our strategy across our state to gather additional input and support.
The Summit is your chance to get in on the ground floor to help set our strategy. So mark your calendar for Sept. 24-26 and register today. You need to attend!
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
