State Lags Cities In Economic Development

The state of Washington wants to offer leadership to communities in economic development efforts, but in many cases, the state lags behind those communities, according to the new director of the Washington Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development.

“While communities have been developing some good plans, the state of Washington literally has no plans for economic development,” Tim Douglas told an economic development forum in Spokane Wednesday.

“That doesn’t mean that there aren’t a lot of people working to make something happen,” Douglas said, “but there is not really a cohesive strategic plan that is long-term in its look, with very clear short-term objectives.

“And that’s something that I think absolutely has to happen.”

Douglas, a former mayor of Bellingham appointed to head the state economic development agency by Gov. Gary Locke in January, said the agency is beginning an effort to develop such a plan. In cooperation with ports and economic development groups throughout the state, the agency is making development of a master plan a priority.

Certainly, a major part of that plan will center on international trade.

Douglas said that because of the expansion of commerce into a single global market, the trade opportunities facing Washington are vast.

He said that in 1963, one of nine state jobs was related to trade. By 1987, that had increased to one of five jobs. And over the next 20 years, the total will grow to one in three.

But the global market offers some sobering realities, he added.

“Every (local economic development) vision statement I’ve seen calls for living wage jobs,” Douglas said. “Everybody wants to bring living wage jobs into the state of Washington. And we should try to do that. But let’s do it tempered with a sense of reality.”

And the reality is that there just aren’t enough high-wage manufacturing operations around anymore for everyone to get one.

Every community dreams of having an Intel microchip plant move to their town, Douglas said. But in order to participate in a global marketplace, most manufacturers must compete on a cost basis with Third World labor forces.

“It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that most of these jobs aren’t going to be $15 to $20 an hour jobs,” Douglas said.

“There are not thousands and thousands of plants out there paying people $15 an hour plus benefits to produce products that will compete with employment wages in places like China.”

He also warned local economic developers, in their rush to recruit expanding or relocating companies to their communities, not to overlook the companies that are already there.

“We need to not forget, in our haste to recruit additional investors, that we have some very successful, and potentially even more successful small- and medium-size businesses already at home in our communities,” Douglas said.

“One of the reasons they are looking at expansion outside their current home is they feel that their contributions to their own community and state have been lost track of in that state’s efforts to recruit others,” Douglas said.

, DataTimes