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| January 8,
2009 Editorial update - President-elect Obama today promised that the
stimulus package won't involve a "slew" of new federal spending programs,
and insisted that it would be free of earmarks for dubious pork projects,
with a new focus on transparency and monitoring of the actual economic
impact in terms of job creation and other policy objectives. We'll
see. Meanwhile, the Association of University
Research Parks (AURP) sent out a broadcast urging all members to support
their lobbying efforts by faxing a suggested form letter to all members of
Congress about the importance of their own favored initiatives, such as
ideas expressed in "The
Power of Place" presentation last October about creating "American
Innovation Zones". This is just the tip of the iceberg as every
special interest group in Washington updates their lobbying pitch to show
how essential it is to stimulate their favored programs. |
We don't
dispute that research parks are useful, as are many other types of local
development initiatives. Given unlimited resources,
there are lots of good ideas which might seem to be worthy of funding, tax
breaks, and governmental intervention in other ways, but resources are
limited and good intentions are not sufficient to achieve cost-effective
results. |
| December
20, 2008 - Is there a Santa Claus? In economic development, there
seems to be a growing belief that the Obama transition team is the next best
thing. Those who will shape a new "stimulus" plan are already being
lobbied urgently for a long wish list of goodies, including many old ideas
which have relatively little to do with early recovery from this latest
recession. Many are programs which have
unsuccessfully sought more funding for years. This is a windfall
opportunity to repackage them politically as a solution for the recession or
at least as a higher priority for government funding. There isn't very
clear evidence of their economic impact, track record of success, or good
metrics and accountability for achieving the desired results. It is
largely a matter of faith that these are all good ideas which are worthy of
more federal funding. Some ideas are clearly intended to go on forever
at higher funding levels - not just temporarily.
Even a very spoiled child would probably hesitate to send
such an ambitious wish list to Santa. |
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| This
announcement was received from IEDC, along with an exhortation for all
members to lobby their elected officials and contacts in support of such
recommendations: "On December 16, 2008 IEDC and a
team of economic development leaders from across the country were invited to
meet with President-elect Barack Obama's Treasury Transition Team in
Washington, D.C. to provide recommendations for the new Administration's
economic stimulus package. Participating organizations included: the
Association of Defense Communities (ADC), the California Association for
Local Economic Development (CALED), the Council on Competitiveness, the
Council of Development Finance Agencies (CDFA), the International Downtown
Association (IDA), the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO),
and the National Association of Development Companies (NADCO). The
recommendations they provided are essential to shaping a viable economic
stimulus package to lift the nation out of the economic crisis and meet
long-term needs for sustainable development. These documents include
summaries of the recommendations as well as the full papers of each
organization. " |
| The full list
of stimulus requests from the economic development organizations is
available at
http://www.iedconline.org/?p=Stimulus_Recommendations |
| Without being
too cynical about it, the recommendations of the various organizations can
largely be summarized as seeking more stimulus for their own programs and
favored initiatives. This is the nature of bureaucratic organizations
and lobbying groups, so most of it is very predictable. |
| Another
unsurprising aspect of the recommendations is that they don't anticipate the
elimination or reduction of any ineffective programs. It is assumed
that everything should continue, despite the economic situation, and that
the solution is to have more stimulus spending and even larger programs on
an ongoing basis, including permanent changes rather than just temporary
ones. |
| Of course,
businesses are expected to urgently make whatever cuts are necessary to
survive a recession. Tough choices have to be made about priorities,
and what simply cannot be afforded at this time even though it may have
seemed to be a good idea previously. It is simply assumed, however,
that all governmental and social programs are untouchable and essential.
There will certainly be dire budget cuts in many economic
development organizations, as is typical of recessions, but there is no talk
of that in the lobbying effort. Like the automotive CEOs who flew into
Washington with their hands out, there is no clear and cohesive, viable
plan.
The focus is just on getting as much federal money and
influence as possible out of the current economic crisis, as though the
stimulus plans were a windfall opportunity to grow their access to federal
government revenues as if there were no economic or social cost to doing so.
As state and local resources shrink, the federal government becomes the
honey pot of endless money.
This is how the Great Depression was prolonged, and
greatly expanded the scale and powers of the federal government bureaucracy
through control over state and local initiatives which could be rationalized
at the time by people with good intentions. Be careful what you wish
for. |
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