Counties Could Make Powerful Team

When it comes to business growth in the next few years, areawide cooperation will be a big key to success.

Increasing collaboration throughout the region will be more important than ever, both in facilitating growth and maintaining quality of life.

Much ado was made following the 1990 census about whether Spokane and Kootenai counties had enough continuity of interest that they should be considered one market, as in one federal Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (an SMSA).

Despite the best efforts of a task force which included four chambers of commerce, the official designation still is lacking. This is partly owing to complicated formulas — remember, the federal government is involved — about how many commuters live in one locale and work in the other.

Some think the two-county SMSA designation is inevitable in 2002 or 2003, when the dust settles on number crunching the next census.

But we should not wait that long to improve how well we work together.

The past 10 years have seen remarkably steady growth in Kootenai County and sporadic growth in Spokane. Meanwhile, the commuting and the connections between residents and businesses in the two counties have multiplied yearly. Now it’s time to expand and accelerate the process.

In many ways, Spokane-Post Falls-Coeur d’Alene already is as much one large market as Seattle-Tacoma or Minneapolis-St. Paul.

The narrow view is to consider Spokane as a city of 180,000, with a large unincorporated population and a few smaller towns nearby.

The more enlightened perspective views the area as a generally like-minded metropolitan enclave of more than a half million residents.

The population count in 1998 by one reliable measure listed Spokane County with 412,671 people and Kootenai County with 102,085. Combined, that’s 514,756 folks. Plus, you probably could add about 4,000 more people from the Suncrest area of Stevens County whose affiliations are more with Spokane than Colville.

Spokane County, as an SMSA by itself, ranks 120th to 125th among the country’s 320 metro areas. Depending on growth in other SMSAs, an SMSA with combined Spokane-Kootenai county population could easily rank in the top 100, maybe the top 90 metro areas nationally.

Why do we care?

A boost to the top 100 metro markets creates a new perspective and regional image around the country without changing much of anything here. Kootenai County could qualify for some new federal programs and dollars. The increased visibility might even spin off to more tourism and plant-relocation activity.

But population and federal designations aren’t everything.

Pay scales are an issue. And part of improving regional cooperation must help enhance things for all residents to do and enjoy, particularly for people of color. Too many managers over the years have decried the difficulty of recruiting and retaining minority workers to this area, especially single people.

Both life on the job and after work must be satisfying for everyone.

The challenge, as always, is to work closely together regionally while still respecting the political boundaries, state and local, as well as the local identities and disparate interests of area residents.

Still, in an era in which cyberspace shrinks the distances, there are plenty of opportunities for collaboration as a growing regional business center.

Pooling of higher ed, job training, venture capital and other resources must be expanded. SIRTI is just a start on this kind of partnership.

Credit should be given to Bob Potter and Idaho’s Jobs Plus if they help locate new business which want West Plains proximity to Spokane International Airport, just as Mark Turner and Spokane’s Economic Development Council should get credit in helping firms locate in Post Falls, Rathdrum or Coeur d’Alene.

Job recruitment can be even more of a team effort, using whatever competitive advantages any locale in the two states and two counties can provide. Political boundaries should not be insurmountable barriers.

A growing cluster of high-tech firms can be nurtured areawide; it need not be limited to just one or two venues. San Jose doesn’t house every computer firm in the Silicon Valley.

In the new millennium, it takes more than one village to raise an area’s economy.