Last updated on 2011.08.01
Let the word games begin.
At last week's Madison City Commission meeting, Lake Area Improvement Corporation exec Dwaine Chapel supported his request for $240,000 in taxpayer funding with the remarkable claim that the LAIC's Forward Madison project has created 500 new jobs.
That statement drew letters to the editor of the local paper from Ashley Allen and myself demonstrating that claim to be counterfactual.
At Tuesday's Lake County Commission meeting, Mr. Chapel requested another $30,000 of public money for the Lake Area Improvement Corporation's quasi-private and very confidential efforts to boost Madison's economy. Asked about the LAIC's activities, Mr. Chapel again mentioned 500 new jobs. But this time, according to Wednesday's print edition of the Madison Daily Leader, Chapel said the various company expansion the LAIC has promoted have the potential to create 500 jobs.
Potential. Potential.
Forward Madison is an investment initiative that has embraced the community and surrounding county. The goals are to create 400 new jobs over the next 5 years, to increase the population of Lake County, to increase the sales tax and property tax revenue for Lake County, increase capital investment, and assist the growth of entrepreneurs in the Heartland Technology Building [Dwaine Chapel, executive director, Lake Area Improvement Corporation, LAIC Newsletter, July/August 2007].
Now I get it. When the LAIC says it will achieve something, it only means that it will create the potential for something. And I suppose theoretically, by failing to grow jobs, population, or sales tax revenue, we create the mathematical potential to enjoy even larger proportional growth in the future. Brilliant! I can't wait for my potential to draw one million blog his a day to start paying the mortgage.
Perhaps Mr. Chapel has been taking Star Trek too seriously. Perhaps he simply fears "that having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting."
Spock, Stonn, Dwaine, quit playing Kristi: if you're asking for my tax dollars, we'd better see a whole lot more having coming from your wanting.
I have the potential to grow 200 bushel/acre corn-70/acre soybeans. My banker should give me all the money I want plus more. Then we can both be in trouble!!
Too funny Charlie
Charlie is absolutely right. If this was a business plan presented to a bank for funding, the bank would laugh and reject the request.
I still want real numbers from the last five years. I am not asking for "confidential information". I want to know how much money was provided to local businesses and how many jobs it created. I want to know how many hand-outs were given to these businesses and how much went to fancy new buildings vs. real job growth.
Isn't funny that the a board member said on his blog that they don't typically focus on retail, Dwaine says the same thing to the City Commission, and a City Commissioner said at the last meeting that they LAIC hasn't traditionally focused on retail in the past, but NOW that we have put pressure on this organization they have "2-3" retailers interested in Madison.
Word games indeed. Show me real stats, compare it to other cities and state growth, and justify the need for taxpayer dollars.
I want to support this organization, but the smoke and mirrors needs to go away. New leadership may be needed.
The director has received salary increases and makes over a hundred grand now. Someone has benefited from his tenure, but who? That may be the main reason why things continue as they are, compounded by complacent residents and an additional group of people who aren't happy but don't think it's in their best interest to ruffle feathers. It really is too important to look away.
A good friend, who is always egging me to get something done constantly asks me, "Are you aggressively preparing to get ready?" It's a great phrase that each of us should ask ourselves when it seems like we're sitting still.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. In Madison, we need measurable results in job and retail development. What are our current strengths or weaknesses? What are employers looking for and do we have it? Do we have the resources in place to attract more service industries, manufacturing and retail opportunities?
For Madison to grow, we need to have more money in our revolving economic development fund to help finance relocations and job creations that piggy-back with state funding resources and tax abatements currently in place. Spec buildings and infrastructure are important and we have those in place.
The greatest growth Madison ever had was when several volunteer leaders put their energy and resources together, went out and found companies who could benefit by moving to or expanding in Madison. Even though the economy slowed things down the past couple of years, it's time to go and grow. All of us need to participate in lighting the fire of economic development for Madison's future.
Rod, you offer good suggestions, basic principles for quality management.
And don't forget, the economy did not slow things down statewide as much as it appears to have slowed things down in Madison. It thus behooves us all the more to identify Madison's unique strengths and weaknesses. What does Madison have that other places in South Dakota don't that would explain our worse performance? What unique solutions do we use to overcome those unique Madison characteristics?
Sometimes the answer is so obvious that you can't see it.
Half of the population are missing from the conversation. Women are left out of the decision-making by men.
Women make most of the economic decisions for the family. They do the shopping. They keep the home. If we want to grow our community economically, we need to appeal to women by marketing to women by women.
Male or female, we need leaders who will engage the public, share information, invite citizens to participate, and most importantly, talk straight about our successes and our failures.