From the Richmond Palladium-Item:
...
Now, we are aware that there are at least two schools of thought about economic development for Wayne County and assorted gradations of those schools of thought in between. Both have contributed greatly to our county conversation on this issue to date, and to the success that we feel does not have to elude Wayne County in the future.
On one hand, there are those, most notably our Libertarian friends, who feel government has no business collecting and distributing revenues to reward some for economic development. Among them, many if not most would like to see the EDIT tax abandoned and the private sector take responsibility for developing private sector development.
Then there are those — this newspaper counts itself among them — who believe that local government does have a proper if limited role in advancing economic development interests, and that those acting on behalf of local government must be held to the accountability and openness standards of local government.
For too long, that accountability, that transparency, has been missing, or, more politely, lacking. We are pleased that members of the Richmond Common Council — most notably council president Phil Quinn and first-term newcomers Misty Hollis and Ron Oler — have stood courageously and firmly on those accountability issues, and that this proposed contract reflects thie determined input.
What needs to be discovered operationally for the EDC to succeed is an important middle ground somewhere far apart of being too detached from accountability yet, on the other end, far apart from being too close and cozy to the parochialism of local political control. And we suspect it will gain that operational breathing room as it produces results and proves itself deserving of a higher level of confidence from public officials and the constitutuents they represent.
With the decision made in recently to administratively separate Wayne County Area Chamber of Commerce from EDC functions, it should be possible for each organization to flourish cooperatively while fulfilling respective niches in the economic development mix. That means, for the EDC, setting a clear, public and measureable record for retaining existing and attracting new employers.
Failing to do so by standards that should be measurable and provable could mean awarding the economic development task to another, or a Libertarian-type victory of declaring failure, ending the EDIT tax and, with it, likely the future of countywide cooperative economic development efforts.
http://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012307190002
