|
RCBJ-Audible (Listen For Free)
 |
May 14th Economic Development Summit Planned To Educate, Listen To And Establish A Platform For Your Voices To Be Heard
By Steven Porath
What do you want your town, village, neighborhood to be?
For many of us, we want to live in a vibrant community that offers us the amenities we seek at an affordable price. And while we certainly don’t articulate it in these terms, what we generally want is a balanced mix of residential, commercial, retail and industrial sectors that provide us with a healthy tax base that can pay for the public services we enjoy and allows us to live, work and play close to home.
What I have just described is the essence of economic development. It is working toward a goal that enhances the quality of life of our community. We can each sift through various programs and agencies that work towards that goal, but the biggest question can only be answered by us, the citizens of the community: What do we want? Once that question is answered, the next question is readily apparent: How do we get there?
In part, we get there by having our voices heard. Not by anonymous and often ill-informed rants on social media; but doing the work to find the facts and tasking our public officials with supporting the type of economic development we want for each of our unique communities.
On May 14, Rockland’s Office of Economic Development, with the support of the Rockland IDA and the Rockland Business Association, will be conducting an Economic Development Summit to educate, listen to, and establish a platform for your voices to be heard. A morning session will offer opportunities for our business, community, and government sectors to listen to presentations and participate in discussions affecting Rockland’s economic development efforts. An evening session will invite members of the general public to attend and provide a forum to explore how we can help shape the communities in which we live.
Details on specific agendas, places and times will follow in the near future; both here in the Rockland County Business Journal and other social media outlets.
The common theme of both Summit sessions will be to invite members of both the public and private sectors to learn more about the tools of economic development and the varied considerations in play when we seek to attract or expand the business base.
Presuming we agree on the value of a dynamic and varied business community, the key to success is the ability of a community to say “yes” to something it wants. An engaged and involved citizen provides a voice to counter a more vocal minority of “no” that often is the only voice heard at a public hearing or on social media. This is not to presume we say “yes” to every proposed project, but rather that we insist on facts versus hearing only misinformation from the ill-informed or those with a tilted agenda. Be it “yes” or “no” regarding your support is your choice… how you make that decision will hopefully be based on reality.
When an organization such as the Rockland IDA considers incentivizing a project that would bring a new business to our community, or expand or retain an existing business, we consider the following:
- Will it create and/or retain jobs?
- Will it positively expand our taxable rate base?
- What is the long-term economic impact of the project?
- And does the local community support the development?
Over the coming weeks, we will provide RCBJ with more articles about economic development and the value of engaged citizenship. We will provide information on registering for the Summit, as well as specific speakers and topics to be discussed. In the meantime, we can all ask ourselves… what do we want for our community?
The Rockland IDA was established by New York State statute to promote the attraction, retention, and expansion of commercial and industrial business within the County. It does so by providing various financial incentives in return for performance obligations of the projects it approves. Since 2015 alone, the Agency has authorized projects that have resulted in billions of dollars of new investment in the County while creating and/or retaining thousands of jobs.
Steve Porath is the Executive Director of the Rockland Industrial Development Agency
