From the Bloomington Herald-Times:
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Despite hard times, Greene County kept its edge. One economic indicator, the amount of sales tax collected, reflects significant growth in the county as sales tax revenue more than doubled from 2007 to 2011. A look at personal income shows that Greene County residents fared better than residents in other area counties.
Bethell attributes the county’s economic survival in part to a strong partnership between government entities and private developers with the same goal. “We have become very much more progressive in our thinking in the last few years,” Bethell observed. “Generally, there is a progressive outlook, perspective and approach to how we do things.”
She called WestGate “a classic example.”
“A few years ago, it was nothing more than a field of grass. But sometimes, it takes visionaries, and we have some of those in Greene County who grasped that notion and said, ‘This makes sense so we have to try and make it happen.’ If you keep doing things as you have been doing them all along, it’s a losing proposition.”
WestGate now employs hundreds in a bustling community of high-tech businesses associated with Crane’s war machine. And the current construction of a $3.5 million wastewater treatment facility and 250,000-gallon water tower at the site will allow the industrial zone to grow even more.
The project is a partnership between Greene County and WestGate financed from special economic development district funds and with help from an REMC rural loan and grant program. “Collectively, we could do it,” Bethell said. “Economic development is always a team effort. I was fortunate enough to come here at a time when the leadership recognized we have got to take hold of our own future.”
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Brown County residents have endured tough times of late. County seat Nashville’s tourism-based economy flatlined during the recession, and the demise of several attractions — the Little Nashville Opry burned down, Indiana University axed longtime support for Brown County Playhouse productions, the Salt Creek Golf Course was in financial distress and nearly sold at auction — has made matters even worse.
Brown County depends on cash infused by visitors. And without it, as fewer people have the money for weekend getaways to quaint rural towns, the county’s sales tax income dropped 13 percent from 2007 to 2011. Sales in 2011 were down more than $62 million from 2007 and generated $645,879 less in income tax than five years before.
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This week, Nashville’s redevelopment commission will consider establishing a tax increment financing district to help attract new business investment. A development plan parallels the county comprehensive plan, which has guidelines that protect the integrity of existing businesses and encourages development that corresponds with the county’s “environment and culture.”
With the end of the recession proclaimed, Brown County’s economic future looks more hopeful. The golf course owners worked out a plan with their mortgage company to keep the business afloat, and a Martinsville businessman this month bought the Little Nashville Opry site with the intent to rebuild the country music venue.
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http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2012/04/29/business.a-tale-of-two-counties.sto?1335826940
(This is a paid article)
