Incentive Watch Sunday, August 13, 2006 Economists are right when they argue that incentives matter. But the issue for EDPros is more complicated. Do economic development incentives matter enough to matter? (The prevailing evidence suggests that they do not.) More important, perhaps, what are the opportunity costs of investing public funds in this way? Would North Carolina have been better off investing its Dell incentive money in early child care? (Answer: almost certainly, "Yes". See the latest publication from the Committee on Economic Development here.) In my view, we are going to start seeing smart places investing incentives in people, not companies. Kalamazoo's Promise is one example. So, it's important for EDPros to keep up with how incentives are being used. Here are articles on incentives from last week. Dayton is making a significant investment in an old Delphi facility. The project involves establishing a new manufactuirng operation for composite products. Read more. Here's an innovative one. The city of Aurora, CO is considering giving a tax break to firms if they buy stuff from other Aurora firms. Read more. Incentives can create a political backlash. Here's an interesting article out of Iowa. Read more. There's aseries on tax increment financing. You can read more here and here. States are using incentives to attract tourists. Read more. They have been using incentives for sime time to attract film and television productions. This article out of Maryland outlines that state's strategy. Read 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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