One Southern Indiana's Michael Dalby: " ... A response was needed to clarify our position."

Michael Dalby's text is dated December 28, 2007. Go here to learn how it came to be:

Background: How it came about that One Southern Indiana’s Michael Dalby contributed today's statement to NA Confidential.

Readers, what do you think?

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Before Christmas, Develop New Albany Director Debbie Farmer arranged a meeting where Roger, Debbie, and I sat down and discussed the issues. I appreciated that meeting and felt it helped both of us understand the nuances of complicated issues. And I realized we are both generally aiming at similar goals – creating a better community by building a sustainable economy – we just go about it in different ways.

First off, as to my delay in responding, One Southern Indiana has a standing policy to not respond to letters to the editor or other similar individual forums. We don’t feel it’s prudent to get into a “tit for tat” debate spurred by an individual comment. But after meeting with Roger, I agreed that a response was needed to clarify our position.

One Southern Indiana is a business association and economic development not-for-profit organization. Our mission is to grow the southern Indiana economy – particularly within Floyd and Clark counties. There are many factors that impact a community’s economy. We would be remiss if we stood on the sidelines and didn’t seek to engage those issues. One Southern Indiana has taken official public policy positions on five issues: support of full-day kindergarten, support of funding for the IUS dorms and the Ivy Tech expansion, support of the Ohio River Bridges Project, support of the need for County funding (hopefully as a step toward regional funding) for the Clark County Regional Airport, and the need for property tax reform and local/state government efficiency.

We have not taken a written official position on ROCK – nor do we plan to. Our relationship to ROCK extends to their efforts to encourage communities to apply existing zoning ordinances and laws to push pornography shops and their over-sized billboards out of areas where they retard business growth. Our role is business development and we must evaluate impediments to business growth in Clark and Floyd Counties. We would no more expect businesses to locate next to Theater X and the oversized XXX billboard than we would want them to locate next to a slaughterhouse or junk yard. All three are obstacles to business growth and expanding the tax base in those locations.

As to any other agenda pursued by ROCK, it is not One Southern Indiana’s role in the community to take stances on social issues. But I agree with your “slippery slope” statement – it is risky to take a step into a portion of an issue and not become immersed in all the corollary issues. As chief executive of 1SI, I should have done more research and made our position more clear. As I stated in the beginning, our role is to do all we can to grow the regional economy. The issues we have officially taken written stances on (as stated above) clearly fall into that arena. Those are the issues that best compliment our core mission. I appreciate you raising this point. Thank you.

As to our invitation to and hosting of President Bush, we felt it was a great and rare opportunity for the citizens of Southern Indiana (and New Albany in particular) to get to host a seated President – bringing dollars and world media attention to our region. Whether or not we agree with his policies, it was an honor to host our nation’s President. One Southern Indiana will have a standing invitation to every sitting President – whoever he or she may be. It should also be noted the majority of the expenses for the event were paid for through the private donations from our members (and not withdrawn from our dues). I’m sure taxpayer dollars were spent for law enforcement time and resources. This did not go unnoticed or unacknowledged. I think that’s a small price to pay for all the attention resulting from such a rare opportunity. Again, it was not an endorsement for or against Mr. Bush’s policies. There were no hidden agendas. Our respect for the office of the President is sincere and extends to all past, present, and future U.S. Presidents – regardless of party affiliation.

As to our focus being more on suburban “greenfield” development verses downtown re-development, I would point to the fact that since our establishment less than 18 months ago, One Southern Indiana has assisted businesses with the creation of over 3,000 primary jobs (jobs that bring new dollars into our community) and do not include retail or healthcare jobs). These new jobs account for over $107 million annually in new payroll. The companies (both new and expanding) creating these jobs are also creating over $113 million in new taxable investment (tangible capital). While this does include some “greenfield” developments (like Connextions’ projected new 750 jobs in River Ridge), we have also assisted 16 existing companies to expand and add new jobs and new investment (including Clarke American in Jeffersonville, Globe Mechanical in New Albany, D.A. Inc in Charlestown, and Marine Builders in Utica). We would love to work on a project seeking to expand or relocate operations to a redevelopment area in Clark or Floyd Counties, and I believe that as the demand for office space along the Ohio River increases, those projects will occur. We look forward to working with Develop New Albany to help in those efforts.

As I previously explained, our intent is to grow the economy and thanks to the financial assistance of over 1,000 private sector companies, we have been very successful in assisting businesses while simultaneously helping our local economy. For the record, we currently receive no public funding, although the projects we assist most benefit local governments by expanding the property tax base and adding to local income tax collections. As you know, community public services are paid for via taxes and fees. Additional dollars for public services can be gained by either (a) raising taxes and fees or (b) expanding the taxable base (and, thus, actually lowering the burden of government on the individual taxpayer). Our economic development efforts assist in the latter effort. We are, in fact, the only area organization focused on expanding the tax base, and we feel justified in asking local governments for a small percentage of the portion of that new tax revenue to offset our expenses. Every dollar provided by local government would be leveraged by 13 private sector dollars. As proof of the value we bring to our private investors, we are currently providing an ROI of over $90 (in new [taxable] private sector capital monies) for every dollar we spend on our economic development efforts (the national average is $18). We believe we offer a very valuable, cost-effective, and highly leveraged investment for local government.

I appreciate the opportunity to meet, I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to explain our position, and I appreciate the role your blog plays in expanding the community dialogue.