Home-Grown Stimulus Plans: How Communities Are Responding to the Recession

Home-Grown Stimulus Plans: How Communities Are Responding to the Recession

Rather than wait for federal stimulus dollars to start flowing, many communities are implementing their own recovery strategies to keep the local economy above water. Their approaches are wide-ranging, from re-energized business retention efforts and slashed development fees to increased marketing, new revolving loan funds and "buy local" campaigns.

Here's a look at some of those strategies, starting with some IEDC members' responses to the recession/stimulus survey in the March 9 ED Now:

• "We have moved to a more aggressive approach to the development of revolving loan funds (about $500K) to assist those firms whose business are growing; developed and contracted to provide entrepreneurship training for a 3-county region."

• "Beefing up loan and grant programs; staying visible; marketing business assistance programming; getting information out about available assistance for businesses; combining with other organizations to do annual fund raising event rather than incur cost of solo event."

• "Oklahoma City will continue to invest in itself, through infrastructure improvements, maintaining our economic development efforts, and moving forward with over $1 billion in funded projects over the next five years. Our business retention and expansion efforts are very aggressive."

• "We have completed our first Strategic Business Development Plan. This plan calls for a new dedication of a wide array of organizational partners to strive toward a shared community brand, leveraging of resources, identification of immediate and emerging target sectors, and defining our role in the regional economy. One of the more important things we realized that we as the City can't be the lead for everything (i.e. workforce development) but we do need to be the convening entity to make sure solutions to identified problems are being discussed in real time."

• "We have a renewed focus on our existing businesses and trying to keep what we currently have."

• "While we are trying to ‘herd cats' as every agency and organization tries to be first in line for stimulus funding, we are also putting together an angel investor group and local revolving loan fund to support entrepreneurship."

The news articles below provide glimpses into additional or expanded approaches:

• Providing short-term public works jobs that don't need much special training (Wall Street Journal, Mar. 11)

• Promoting downtown events and shopping locally (Napa Valley Register, Feb. 19)

• Making local businesses more competitive in bidding for city contracts and exempting "clean tech" firms from the business license tax (The Argus, Mar. 5)

• Reducing fees for building permits, grading permits, plan checks and inspections (The Press-Enterprise, Feb. 17)

• Streamlining the development review process (The Sacramento Bee, Oct. 13)

• Providing purchasers of a new cars from a local dealer with a $300 mall gift card (City of Palmdale)

• Forming a BID to hire a tourism director and pay for marketing (Times-Herald, Mar. 11)

• Providing bonuses to brokers who find tenants or buyers for vacant stores and shops (KTLA.com, Feb. 18)

• Merging economic development groups that have common goals and overlapping board members (Birmingham Business Journal, Mar. 13)

• Redoubling business retention efforts (but groups still face funding challenges; South Florida Business Journal, Mar. 13)

• Businesses need to carefully review the stimulus act to find potential projects they can bid for - is there a way you can help? (Birmingham Business Journal, Mar. 13)

San Francisco has announced an extensive local stimulus package that includes granting local businesses a New Jobs Payroll Tax exemption for two years; amending the city's public works code to expedite billions of dollars of infrastructure projects and to make it easier for local companies to work on those projects; granting local businesses a tax credit on new, locally purchased equipment; expanding shopping and tourism marketing campaigns; providing free space to local artists in vacant storefronts and more (The Western Edition, Mar. 1). The City of Clovis, Calif., also has an extensive stimulus strategy that includes expanding marketing efforts, providing economic assistance, making regulatory changes and more (CALED/City of Clovis).

In an example of a longer-term approach, the Kauffman Foundation's FastTrac LaunchPad program, an entrepreneurial training initiative, is being offered in communities across the nation that have been hit hard by layoffs and the recession. The programs are designed for people who have lost their jobs or entrepreneurs whose businesses are struggling in the tough economy. New York City was the first to start using the program, which also is being implemented in Michigan, West Virginia, Kokomo, Indiana; Philadelphia and other cities.

Thanks to the California Association for Local Economic Development for many of the links above (CEO Wayne Schell is also an IEDC board member), and to IEDC members who responded to our survey. The survey is still available; if you haven't taken it yet, we hope you will. You also can send information on your community's response to the recession, or strategies to access stimulus funds, directly to ED Now editor Louise Anderson, landerson@iedconline.org.