GN&R Editorial on the Greensboro Partnership's rigged study?: "Touch all bases"

"...The Greensboro Partnership lists seven key initiatives
in its 2012 strategic plan released last week.

No mention of the fact that GN&R Editorial Board Member and Publisher

Robin Saul

was one of an undisclosed list of participants

surveyed for the secret study, whose purpose may be to sell more debt

to City of Greensboro and Guilford County taxpayers?

It presents several strategies for achieving objectives under each initiative.

Friday morning, I clicked on what I thought

was the Greensboro Partnership's link to 2012's Strategic Plan

only to find the underlying study

conducted by Garner Economics LLC.

I copy and pasted some interesting stuff,

although I didn't get the names of the 92 "participants"

that were interviewed.

I went home for lunch and tried to bring up the study again

and found that it had been replaced

with the Partnership's "Strategic Plan,"

that didn't include a whole lot of info from the study.

I called J. Patrick Danahy

President and CEO of The Greensboro Partnership

for the list of participants,

and he denied my assertion that I saw the study

until I emailed him what I had.

He called back

and told me it was in the best interests of the city

that the study remain confidential, and that he refused to comment.

...The seven initiatives are:

-- Targeted industry cluster focus.

They need support — with workforce development programs

or placement of infrastructure in likely growth corridors.

From the unreleased study:

The City of Greensboro has an assistant city manager

whose responsibilities include economic development assistance.

Who was previously a Greensboro Partnership lobbyist

and is now the interim City Manager?

How many "lobbyists" were "study participants"

or are children of some who may profit from the "plan"?

Many businesses want construction-ready sites.

I believe many study participants which Danahy refused to disclose,

of which I think I remember about 15

of whom some would most likely personally profit

from the "construction-ready" site idea

that would be paid for by our community's taxes.

Caterpillar looked at five sites in Guilford County

but none was ready for immediate development,

Greensboro Partnership President Pat Danahy said.

The company built its manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem instead.

Errors like that lose games.

So Greensboro's taxpayers should build infrastructure

including water and sewer,

to the far out locations in Guilford County

so a select few property owners can market their real estate

for personal profit, and everyone else pays for it?

-- Higher education assets.

...One proposal is to increase the higher education presence downtown,

a plan supported in principle by chancellors and presidents.

“I think everybody’s excited and enthused,

and we will find a way to do it,” Danahy said.

From the study on education:

In 2010 Guilford County Schools composite SAT scores

were below the state, nation...

Were there not many local higher education leaders

included in the "study" the Partnership did

that may overemphasise what "they" want

as opposed to what may really bring in new high paying jobs?

Here's one from the study that didn't make it into the "plan":

Free Wireless in the CBD:

The City of Greensboro should install free wireless broadband

in the central business district.

This largely symbolic effort downtown will show mobile entrepreneurs

that the community has embraced technology

and supports mobile entrepreneurs

(people who can work anywhere but select a community

based on the quality of place and physical assets of a location).

-- Center-city development.

...“Plan and deliver a signature corridor on Lee Street/High Point Road from the Gateway University Research Park to the Koury Convention Center.”

...-- Government relations.

From tax policy to support for higher education to transportation,
economic growth requires support, not opposition, from government.

The Partnership should engage the University of North Carolina
...to conduct a Cost/Benefit Analysis of consolidated government,
or at the very least, consolidated services in Guilford County.

...- Economic vitality and quality of life.

Attracting and retaining young professionals should be a priority.

This isn’t as easy as pitch and catch.

Almost all new jobs in the U.S. are created

by entrepreneurial and innovative firms,

with an average age of 25 years (firms) and in all sizes.

Economic growth of a community

typically drives small business start ups.

...it’s imperative that any entrepreneurial program

be focused on those companies and individuals

that have the greatest chance of being economic generators

for the community and export goods and services,

which is a wealth generator.

A consultant hired by the Greensboro Partnership

found weaknesses in the city’s game, [mostly undisclosed?]

such as shortages of skilled industrial workers, technicians, scientists and managers,

and reasonably priced sites for development;

high property tax rates; and poor air quality.

Over the last ten years,

growth in real values for the average wage per job in Guilford

has increased by just 0.7 percent ($226),

and in the last five years has declined by 1 percent (-$379)

As of May 2011, total employment in Greensboro-High Point

is down 9.1 percent or 33,900 fewer jobs.

The rate of job losses over the last five and ten years (-7.4 percent)

is greater in Greensboro-High Point than in the nation,

state and all benchmark geographies

The Greensboro Partnership strategic plan lines up all the bases.

It should not become a bench-warmer."

GN&R Editorial

From "Outlook for Job Growth Muted,"

and the Greensboro Partnership Study

that President and CEO Patrick Danahy

refuses to release or comment on

Why didn't the Greensboro News & Record

mention the Regressive Tax

in the Greensboro Partnership's "To Do List"?

Both the City of Greensboro and Guilford County

ranked 2.73 and 2.70 respectively in business climate rankings

from all respondents that weren’t part of the government focus group

(on a 1 to 5 scale with 5 being the best),

clearly noting that no one should accept that it is business as usual

or that the status quo is acceptable.

Engage ideas of Leadership Greensboro and other young leaders;

old guard needs to step back and let fresh ideas flow

Special interest groups should be careful

when attempting to influence policies;

listen to what taxpayers want,

not just what they think is important.

According to the John Locke Foundation,

Guilford County has the 14th highest tax burden in NC out of 100 counties.

"...rent-seeking is an attempt to obtain economic rent

by manipulating the social or political environment
in which economic activities occur,

rather than by creating new wealth.

...spending money on political lobbying in order to be given a share of wealth

that has already been created.

...People accused of rent seeking typically argue

that they are indeed creating new wealth (or preventing the reduction of old wealth)

by improving quality controls,

guaranteeing that charlatans do not prey on a gullible public,

and preventing bubbles.

Many current studies of rent-seeking focus on efforts

to capture various monopoly privileges stemming from government regulation

of free enterprise competition.

The term itself derives, however,

from the far older practice of appropriating a portion of production

by gaining ownership or control of land.

...the expenditure of resources attempting to enrich oneself

by increasing one's share of a fixed amount of wealth

rather than trying to create wealth.

Since resources are expended but no new wealth is created,

the net effect of rent-seeking is to reduce the sum of social wealth.

Rent-seeking generally implies the extraction of uncompensated value

from others

without making any contribution to productivity.

...a more common example of rent-seeking is political lobbying

to receive a government transfer payment,

or to impose burdensome regulations on one's competitors

in order to increase one's market share.

...such behaviors may result in substantial social losses.

Studies of rent-seeking focus on efforts to capture special monopoly privileges

such as government regulation of free enterprise competition.

The term "monopoly privilege rent-seeking" is an often-used label

for the former type of rent-seeking.

Often-cited examples include a farm lobby that seeks tariff protection

or an entertainment lobby that seeks expansion of the scope of copyright.

It is important to distinguish between profit-seeking and rent-seeking.

Some will try to say that rent-seeking is a creation of wealth.

However, profit-seeking should be understood as the creation of wealth,

while rent-seeking includes the use of the power of the state or government

to distribute wealth between different groups of individuals."

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