Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 29, 1995 TAG: 9508290011
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: EDWIN C. HALL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
While cooperation has greatly improved, it is still an issue. Recently while working with a prospect already located in the valley, I found it interesting to see how much effort the local government made to keep the prospect from moving into another local jurisdiction. The staffs of the various governments are not at fault. This is what they get paid for, to protect their turf and tax base. We must realize that this valley and region are only one pie and cannot not be constantly considered as four separate islands that can survive alone. The urban and suburban areas of our community must prosper together.
The political lines frequently cause problems for those who are interested in locating or investing in the valley. A prospect must review four sets of rules and regulations, different tax structures, etc. before deciding whether to even consider the Roanoke Valley. We must make this process user-friendly to encourage development, and make this process easy as long as it is being done properly.
The New Century Council is working hard to create a vision for a large area of Southwest Virginia, and Roanoke County is preparing a long-range plan with citizen input. That is certainly commendable.
On the other hand, all the Roanoke Valley governments and citizens should be planning for the future together for quality growth by creating a vision for the future and determining exactly what type of valley we want for the year 2000 and well into the 21st century. This vision and plan should be specific in nature and in the best interest of every citizen, not government or politicians, no matter how many changes it requires our local governments to make.
We need to develop a vision for our valley; that will encourage industry, developers and others to invest their capital dollars here. Planning separately will do nothing but continue to hold the future success of Roanoke behind others competing with us for new businesses.
Before some of these problems can be solved, we must unite and work together in the valley. Waste and duplication must be cut to the bare minimum, or taxpayers will continue to pay the bill and their disposable income will decline. The days are over of raising taxes or increasing revenue based on increased property values, user fees, etc. to create more dollars and spending as usual. This is still higher taxes no matter what political spin is put on it. If average people stopped to calculate the amount of taxes they pay - not just the so-called rich, but low- and middle-income families - they would be astounded at their total tax bill.
Now is the time to re-engineer our governments and our valley for the future wealth of our citizens. Reshaping companies today is Management 101 because they have no choice if they are going to survive in today's climate. Government must do a better job of utilizing its resources of staff and revenue available. In other words, government must also re-engineer and reshape for the future, working with the citizens to determine a vision, deciding what services are really necessary and affordable, and how the private sector can be used to effectively reduce costs along with government.
We must determine what type of businesses we want and what we can accommodate versus pie in the sky. We must determine what our assets are and what reasonable expectations we can have when pursuing new businesses, then target-market those we want for our valley.
Who are our competitors? Unfortunately most of the time we act like our competitors are the adjoining political subdivision or each other. In fact, other states throughout the Southeast are competing heavily for industry, many times with more incentives than Virginia allows. A more dramatic fact is that some of our local businesses are being courted to locate in foreign countries. We must unite if we are to attract and keep our industries, giving our citizens high-paying jobs to keep them in the Roanoke Valley and build future wealth for our community.
We need a united effort to help bring quality businesses to Roanoke. We must help existing property owners and existing businesses grow as much as possible also. Last year, 82 percent of our new jobs came from existing businesses. Our citizens must not be misled by our current low unemployment. The Roanoke area is the major commerce and health-care center for Western Virginia; however with the major changes taking place in the banking and health-care industries today, we cannot stop working together to attract more quality jobs and diversification of those jobs.
We must promote our valley on a true cooperative basis. We have the Regional Partnership and each government has its own economic development office. Many times cooperation is good, but other times is certainly less than desirable. If all of the economic development budgets, which are gravely under-funded, were combined into one large entity, production and efficiency would be much greater. Recently in meeting with a developer looking at Roanoke, he said he was astounded at what the valley had to offer and that it was such a well-kept secret, but immediately observed competition among local governments.
A decaying urban core will affect the entire valley. Research has shown if central cities aren't doing well, the region isn't doing well. A prospect of any significant size that is looking at the valley wants to see the downtown area and the central city. Many of the prospects come from areas where the inner city has decayed so much that it has drastically affected the entire market and made communities undesirable to work or live in any longer. We will in this valley, particularly because of the size and topography, rise and fall together.
Consolidation lost at the polls, but even a vote against consolidation was not a vote against working together for the good of all.
Virginia's local government structure fosters fragmentation of services and competition between cities and counties instead of encouraging cooperation. Government can change now to keep in step with progress, or it can be forced to change like private industry has in the last few years. And this can be painful rather than planned change.
The Roanoke Valley is at a crossroads. We can go our separate ways, or unite and cooperate for the benefit of all. We have few corporate headquarters located in Roanoke and our office market is stagnant compared to what it has been in the last decade. Other areas
of our economy are growing, but not creating the type job market or pay scale we want for our citizens. The labor shortage in Roanoke is on the lower end of the pay scale. The Regional Partnership was quoted recently as saying "the labor shortage is not a deterrent for the kind of jobs we are trying to create. Many of our children leave the valley for greater opportunities; not all have family businesses they can participate in."
There are many positive things happening in this valley, but they are not enough to make Roanoke the true Shining Star it can be.
Thomas Watson Jr., former chairman of IBM said, "If an organization is to meet the challenges of a changing world, it must be prepared to change everything about itself except its basic beliefs as it moves through corporate life. The only sacred cow in our organization should be the basic philosophy of doing business."
It is not business-as-usual. Let nothing be a sacred cow in the Roanoke Valley. We can prepare a vision and plan that will be meaningful to each and every one of our citizens. Let's do something that our children and grandchildren will be proud of in the future.
Edwin C. Hall is president of Hall Associates Inc., commercial and industrial Realtors, in Roanoke.
by CNB