Limit incentives? Start by ignoring Boeing Wednesday, June 04, 2003 The Governor of Georgia wants to talk to his colleagues in Alabama and South Carolina about limiting incentives for big projects. Learn more. They could start by ignoring the Boeing deal. Boeing is shopping around for a new location for its 7E7 airliner. (Visit the project site.) Ten states are currently competing for the 1,200 jobs. (Boeing announced it was looking for a site for the assembly plant on May 16, and has given interested communities until June 20 to fill out a 27-page questionnaire laying out their qualifications.) My sense is that Boeing will end up expanding in Seattle (if it builds a new facility at all), but not before it sets up a bidding war to wring concessions out of the State of Washington. The Boeing deal doesn't smell right. You've got a company that lost $478 million last quarter in an industry that is way over capacity. They are conducting a highly public search, and they have disclosed an unusual amount of information. It looks to me like a replay of an old game. Some years ago, McDonald Douglas -- now a part of Boeing -- pulled a similar ploy by threatening to build an airliner in Taiwan, all in an effort to get more concessions from the feds. The idea of limiting incentives regionally is starting to take hold. Alabama is close to a deal with Mississippi and is in early stages of talks with Florida about giving joint incentive packages to draw companies to their shared state borders. Learn more. posted by Ed Morrison |		This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. links Some Background on EDPro Weblog The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it. One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information. So, spread the word...Share the knowledge. Tell a friend about EDPro Weblog. If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site: Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber: Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking. Background on Ed Morrison Download some background information on me here.

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