Jim Hawkins Commerce Director’s Robust Energy Has Rubbed Off On Idaho Economy

In his first days as Idaho Commerce director, Jim Hawkins outlined his vision at a YWCA meeting in Boise.

Idaho’s economy in 1986 was as stagnant as water in a old tire. The state was losing jobs and people. Hawkins had a plan to turn things around, but needed about $2 million from a tight-pursed Legislature.

“I told them that to do what we needed to do, everyone needed to give about $2,” he said. “I asked them, could they make that commitment?”

A bag got passed around. The women in the audience filled it with dollar bills.

In his first appearance in front of the frugal Joint Finance and Authorization Committee, Hawkins carefully taped each bill on a page of the easel where he outlined his plans to create jobs. Impressed, the committee authorized the cash to start what has turned out to be one of the greatest economic recoveries in the West.

The next year, Hawkins returned to the committee with just one easel page. On it he’d carefully taped $5 bills. “You’re already getting a return on your investment,” he told the stuffy committee. “And they just said to me, ‘How can we say no to you, Jim?”’

Few could. In the space of a decade, Hawkins’ infectious energy catalyzed Idaho’s ascension to the top the nation in job creation, income growth and export success.

Hawkins, a Coeur d’Alene native, will hang up his economic prodding tools and leave the office at month’s end.

Idaho’s Commerce Department stimulates the state’s exploding tourism industry, administers federal housing and urban development programs and introduces hundreds of Idaho businesses to international partners.

Hawkins brushes off credit for the state’s revitalization. “We did it by bringing people together,” he said. “We helped them choose which way they wanted to go.”

Early in his tenure, he spoke to a group in tiny Soda Springs in southeastern Idaho, where the depressed economy had hit hard. A quarter of all the houses were for sale.

“I told them to buy every house they could in town,” Hawkins said. “They laughed at me. But now you can’t buy a house in Soda Springs. I went back there recently and they said they’d wish they’d listened to me.”

From 1987 to 1995, the state created 144,000 jobs, ranking it No. 2 in the nation for such growth.

While North Idaho has grown as quickly as many communities in Southern Idaho, it’s economy remains fragile. The Panhandle’s unemployment rate has remained far above the state average for the duration of the growth boom.

But for Hawkins, 59, success had a price. Traveling to all corners of the state seven days a week limited his time with his two children, and eventually his three grandchildren.

Hard work is no stranger in the Hawkins family. Jim’s father, a prominent Coeur d’Alene attorney, died at 60, mostly from overwork.

“There really weren’t many Saturday mornings when I came in the office and didn’t find Jim behind his desk,” said Georgia Smith, communications director for the department. “I knew that if I did come in on Saturday, there’d be someone I could talk with.”

When Gov. Andrus - who made Hawkins his first cabinet appointee in 1986 - stepped aside for Gov. Phil Batt in 1994, Hawkins figured he’d have to hit the bricks too.

Batt persuaded him to stay as the only holdover from the Andrus Administration, and the two have since become “good friends,” Hawkins said. “It was tough to come into his office and tell him that I needed to do this.”

He leaves the office with some concerns. “We cannot let apathy and complacency enter into our work,” he said.

To manage the growth, the state must continue to build roads and other infrastructure, Hawkins said. The state must continue to invest in education so that workers can develop skills.

With Idaho’s budgetary austerity at its peak, Hawkins worries that those priorities may not get the attention they deserve. His own department took a budget cut too. “I think they’ve cut all they can cut from the state government.”

As for Hawkins’ replacement, Batt said he wants to find a new director as soon as possible. Hawkins said his answering machine at work has quite a few messages from different people wanting to know what it takes to do his job.

Hawkins himself will doubtlessly get offers to consider. “But I really haven’t put any thought to what I want to do, other than spend time with my grandkids.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo