My sharp-eyed commenters notice that Midcontinent and Midco Communications are adding over 300 jobs with two new expansions in the Fargo area. Amazingly, the South Dakota company chose to expand in a neighboring state with more snow and individual and corporate income taxes.
My neighbor Rod Goeman earns himself promotion from the comment section with this observation of local economic developers asleep at the switch:
I'd ask why didn't they move to Madison? Were they ever approached? Have these types of firms all been approached by our LAIC to assist them with their expansions? Call Centers and Fulfullment Centers (rebates, insurance claims, etc) are flourishing and growing yet we don't have anything in Madison that can work with DSU Students and our 4.9% unemployed in Lake County. Madison needs to stop elephant hunting and start recognizing that we can be a strong regional employment provider for growing firms within 100 miles of Madison. In this market, you don't want all your eggs in one large basket...too risky [Rod Goeman, comment, Madville Times, 2011.05.25].
Manning the phones all day isn't my preferred work... but then neither is welding skidsteers. I've complained before to Rod about call centers, but I have to admit, Rod makes two good points here. First, we do need more baskets to spread the jobs and wealth. Second, a call center would be a good fit for our college student population, better than manufacturing jobs.
Someone get Rod a seat on the LAIC!
Call center is the perfect job for kids right out of High School, i worked at one until I took over as manager of a local store here in town. And the pay is decent as well! 4 years ago Wells Fargo's entry pay for their customer service was over $10/hr.
I been saying it forever, with a college how can Madison NOT have a call center by now?
I agree with Rod G. I also agree with his dad, John G. and really appreciated the article he wrote in the Chamber newsletter a few months ago about how Brookings has grown thanks to the Interstate, and how Madison has had stagnant growth since the 1960s.
Both Rod and John are smart guys that have done great work in this community.
I agree with them. It is time to put more pressure on the LAIC and City Commission. We could easily employ our college students through call centers, outsourced tech centers, coding centers, etc. Then, there would also be professional job growth, as we need someone to manage and lead those young workers.
We need to develop retail and entertainment to draw more to town as well. We also need to develop high tech industry at a faster pace. Visit us at http://www.facebook.com/madisonsd and join the movement!
As someone who is leaving Madison because of the lack of jobs... I think it's a good idea. I also think the LAIC should find a way to lure the folks from the SDSU Soil testing lab to Madison.
Spending $40,000 on a "wow factor" for the 10 year old community center will surely attract the businesses Madison needs to grow and prosper.
The Community Center is a failure for a large part of our working community, as a $505 yearly family membership fee is reckless and irresponsible, let alone the need for a further 'wow' factor (which is costing the city 40k, and not to mention the student fees collected by the college) which includes 5k for mirrors and another 5k for flat screens, and the rest of the nonsense.
I've said all along, let's make the Community Center more open to everyone, and having this sort of 'wow' factor is both reckless and irresponsible at this time, where as we could work to reduce the fees, and increase the usage of the facility for more of us in the community.
I'm just disappointed when things which our community has payed taxes to construct and maintain, remain off limits for far too many of us. Another example of poor policy and direction would be the recent community pool design, which again, went with the 'wow' factor, as opposed to the 'accessibility' factor, and costs too much for working families both in, and outside, of our community to use.
If I wanted to set up a call center, I'd look for a state where the workers had good skills but would also work cheap!
The individual and corporate income taxes wouldn't matter to be as the corporate fat cat, because I could pass the first on to the laborers, and "zero out" the second by hiring a good bookkeeper.
If I were a writer or artist looking for an affordable place to live, I would look for low housing costs along with low taxes. When I first started looking out "West of Wisconsin," my focus went to Wyoming and South Dakota, neither of which have income taxes. South Dakota won because of the lower up-front housing costs.
My situation is not typical, and North Dakota is one of two or three states that's doing better than South Dakota overall in this recession. (I think the others are Montana and Utah, both of which have income taxes.)
I'd love to see a call center come to Lead! Ye gods, we need all the help we can get right now. My dad tells me that President Obama is keen on the Sanford Lab, and that helps too. The School of Mines is a doggone good institution, and ought to attract interest among those highfalutin' physicists.
If I were rich I'd start the "Cafe Bourbaki" on Main Street in Lead ...
I don't know if I agree with your phrase, "local economic developers asleep at the switch" because the volunteer board works hard. I'm just saying we should focus on regional manufacturers and service businesses within 100 miles of Madison who are in expansion mode, to bring a division to Madison or provide expansion of their current operation with Madison area employees. I think we're all frustrated with the pace of industrial and service center growth in Madison the past five years, and without specific, measurable goals for its director to reach, improvement will be difficult.
Rod, perhaps they aren't "asleep at the switch." But there's a difference between being really busy and actually getting things done. Just ask the hamster in the wheel. Joe Austin taught us that work is force times distance. You can push and grunt against that big rock all day, but if it doens't move, or if, as in Madison's case, it rolls backward, you haven't done any work.
By the way, Ashley, your letter to the paper rocked!