Saturday, June 18, 2005
Iowa has passed a revised Iowa Values Fund. The new legislation authorizes $50 million a year over a 10-year period. In the first year, the Iowa Department of Economic Development will spend $35 million on business incentives and marketing. Another $15 million will be invested in state universities, community colleges, and other programs. Read more.
The allocation of funds reflects the current distorted thinking in economic development. 70% of the money will be spent on marketing and incentives to companies. In today's economic development climate, we need to be investing more aggressively in building brainpower and innovation networks.
Dave Swenson, an economist at Iowa State University, rightly points out that "investments" in business firms by public taxpayers are not really investments at all. Read more.
Iowa would have been better off if it had invested no more than 30% of its funds in marketing and incentives to companies. The balance of the money should go to building innovation networks and strengthening the state's colleges and universities. The affordability of Iowa's colleges and universities has deteriorated dramatically in the last decade.
posted by Ed Morrison |
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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.
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Background on Ed Morrison
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Iowa passes Values Fund but with an old time mindset
