Clarification on Missouri's incentives debate Tuesday, July 17, 2007 There's always a risk of putting commentary into EDPro. Sometimes the headlinesor opinions do not align with the facts. For this reason, I like to indicate clearly when I am including an editorial or commentary. I did not do that in last week's Incentive Watch column, and an EDPro from Missouri brought it to my attention. Here is what I wrote: The governor in Missouri is also not happy with how incentives are going. He has signed legislation that kills his own Quality Jobs initiative, along with other proposals. With jobs waiting, Missouri keeps welcome mat rolled up It turns out that the headline from the commentary is misleading. Mike Downing from the Missouri Department of Economic Development wrote me to clarify: The original bill, drafted by our department and supported by the Governor, was only for the increase in the cap of the Quality Jobs and Enhanced Enterprise Zone programs. Unfortunately, our legislature tacked on numerous other unrelated programs which ballooned the annual cost from the original $32 million to over $200 million. To infer that MO is keeping the welcome mat rolled up is not accurate, especially since at the time of the veto, the Governor indicated he will call a special session for the Quality Jobs and EEZ cap. I might suggest a story written in the Wall Street Journal recently regarding clawbacks on incentives. Please note reference to our Quality Jobs program, which is performance based and doesn't require clawbacks. Mike provided a link here, but you must be a WSJ subscriber to get full access to the article. 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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