The withdrawal of the free land offer for Jackson Labs in Collier County probably means the end of the affair. I have watched in disbelief the delicate maneuvering, shrouded in secrecy, with which local authorities tried to sell the JAX concept. I watch without surprise the disintegration of those strategies.
I have expressed my opinion here once before, based on my experience as former director of the Luxembourg Board of Economic Development. This agency helped save that country's one-legged economy when its 100 years old steel production collapsed within months in 1975. Today Luxembourg, diversified, has the highest per capita income on Earth.
So what is Collier County to do to achieve similar success, and why is the JAX experience ending in a fiasco? Collier has a policy called "Project Innovation", launched in 2008. It has failed so far, because of two reasons:
1. The JAX project became such a focus, that it ate away time, energy, money and good will in the community. It had become a political project, not an economic one. Lessons got learned the hard way through dramatic failure and lost opportunity. In the meantime, Collier County's unemployment rate shot up from 8% in 2008 to 13.5% now, way above national average.
2. Project Innovation seems centered on declarations of intent, proclaiming high goals such as bringing high paying jobs to Collier. Such goals remain elusive, without an action plan and adequate tools. It takes an enterprise to create high paying jobs. It takes action to create an enterprise and a set of tools to help out.
For Collier's action plan, we have first to realize that we live in a global world. Enterprises with high paying jobs have choices. We are competing with the whole world. There are three basic possibilities to get new activities to Collier:
1. Convince existing companies from anywhere in the world to move here.
2. Convince local companies to expand here.
3. Incubate local start-ups.
Companies will scrutinize the world and look to Collier for the following competitive advantages:
· Cash incentives, which means tax dollars. They are a key element in international competition, and amount up to 33% of a company's capital needs in most of Europe! Generally young or start-up companies need those. We know about principled opposition here to spending tax dollars, as was visible from the JAX project. Therefore it is fundamental for Collier to decide whether cash incentives are available as a tool. If the vote is no, Collier votes itself out of a certain worldwide league. It is one thing spending on a non-profit organization that has been singled out to receive $260 million and that won't pay taxes. It is another to support economic innovation, a program that is available to everybody, creates jobs immediately and has a verifiable return on investment for the community. It can be explained that spending $1 on economic development, will generate maybe $2 or more in tax revenue. A win-win for public finances and everyone's tax bill.
· Tax incentives. As a County, Collier is two steps removed from sovereignty. Therefore it has limited leeway in tax matters. However some local costs assimilated to taxes such as those incredibly high and unusual impact fees are claiming loud and clear: Collier is not open for business. They have to go.
· Transparency, means that the rules above apply to everyone equally, are easily understood and are open to public scrutiny. Somehow, that didn't apply to the JAX project. It is all about the rule of law, the certainty that it is equally applied to everyone, and that a predictable and stable government will still be there tomorrow.
· Infrastructure, responds to the question: are we prepared to accommodate a company moving to Collier tomorrow? Are developed land , buildings and access to communication available? Private initiative has seized upon that vision. I have visited recently one state of the art land development at Exit 101. Where private initiative is lagging, government has to provide economic zones and not to neglect, an incubator for start-ups. If we don't build it, they won't come.
· Collier has two weak points: Venture Capital and loans as well as a lack of R&D linked to higher education. But Rome wasn't built in one day.
· The emotional argument can be a winner for Collier when a company reaches the final question: do we really like to move to Collier County? Would people we hire and their families be happy there? Luckily quality of life here will help us.
As a consequence, a one-stop shop is needed to promote Collier as the place to do business in an engaging, competent and uncomplicated way. The one-stop agency may be EDC, but without all the tools in the toolbox, it will fail. Success needs a clear political decision about which cash incentives, subsidies, tax incentives, fee waivers, etc. will be available besides Federal and State aid, before thinking about any serious prospection to start.
Prospecting what and where? The short answer is anything, everywhere. Obviously "clean" comes first such as information technology, clean energy, biomedical, medical devices. "Where" defines "fishing grounds", most likely highly developed areas in the US, Europe, maybe Japan and Korea, without forgetting Naples. The process has to be transparent and fast. It should be elaborate to the point that within a day a letter of intent detailing conditions, support and incentives could be delivered to a prospect. That's only possible if all the tools above are ready in the toolbox. For JAX they were not.
And once we got a prospect, never let loose, show that we mean it, that we would love to have them here and they will return the love. Then let the world know why Collier is open for business.
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