GREENSBORO, NC -- The announcement that American Express is shutting down its Greensboro call center is not the all-clear to pile on with every waiting criticism. It is a serious blow that demands, first and foremost, that we respond as best we can to assist those people who, through no fault of their own, will be losing their jobs. My sincere best hopes go out to them.
But if it takes something like this to get us thinking about our approach to economic development, now might be a good time to think about Greensboro's propensity to buy into the rosiest promises of business projects, only to be befuddled when they don't materialize. Exhibit A: The yet-to-create-a-single-new-job FedEx hub, which we were told would employ 750 new workers by now.
In trying to sell Greensboro on the hub in 2001, the Chamber of Commerce told us to expect a $7.5 billion impact. Uh-huh. They also said it would increase the tax base. Instead, the state passed special tax exemptions for FedEx, ancillary facilities on airport property remain exempt from local property taxes and the thousands of homes around the airport newly annexed into the city saw their value diminish drastically as the hub came to fruition, even before the market turned sour. Some predictions.
We bought it though. We gave it an enthusiastic "Okee doke!" The rosiest of expectations became de facto in our minds and conversations. Without creating one job, the hub became the "1,500-employee FedEx hub." We were to be saved from the decimation of the local textile industry by the "aerotropolis." Everybody knew it. We just knew it!
We did not want to talk about the possibility that this thing we were pouring our hopes into might not be all sunshine and salvation. That was just naysaing. We certainly did not want to hear about the possibility that, if things did not go perfectly, unexpected costs might materialize: costs such as the airport needing to pay for the FedEx expansion by tacking on fees to passenger tickets, as they are, just this week, proposing. (This, oddly, despite multiple published reports that the airport has already paid for its share of the expansion.)
The hub is not, of course, the only example of promotion through wild rosy predictions. In the past few days, the News & Record and WFMY News2 took to telling us that the U.S. Figure Skating Championships will bring in $20 million or more. Remarkably, neither cited any source or data for this claim. Even in commenting on the call center closure, the mayor reminds us that Amex is building a data center here that represents "an eventual investment of close to $1 billion." Really? One thousand million dollars? Again, no source. The mayor may just be taking somebody's word for it, but can we believe the investment will equal the entire annual economic impact of the airport and the 50 companies that operate there?
The point is not that we should not be optimists. Our collective optimism is one of our strengths. But we should become a little more sophisticated--a little less gullible. The county commissioners recently turned down a request to provide financial support to the U.S. Figure Skating Championship. The event was coming regardless and the commissioners, five of them anyway, were right to realize a taxpayer gift was not necessary.
That is the kind of discernment we need to cultivate; the ability to be realistic about prospects and where to direct our energies, our hopes and our money. When we stop swallowing the over-promising of anybody who cheerfully announces an "economic impact," when we stop salivating at the mere word "jobs," and start thinking about things more critically, really assessing cost versus benefit and aligning our expectations with reality, we will do better: When we stop allowing illusions to lull us into complacency, the better prospects will come into focus. We can do it.
but but but the Mesiah says everything is ok! Beau
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