Three important unanswered questions arose from prior work on historical analysis of the local economy from the perspective of local option tax (LOT) revenue:
- Why has our resort economy declined in an otherwise high growth period?
- Why have other, competing, resort economies prospered in the same period?
- Is there a structural reason for the observed decline?
No comprehensive structural economic analysis has been conducted of the local resort economy yet such an analysis is central to the development of any strategy toward attainment of a
prosperous, compatible, and prudently growing resort area. Although there have been numerous economic analyses of the Blaine County economy, none of these studies have provided important historical context or benchmarking with competing resort economies. For example, the most recent "economic" study, conducted by TIP Strategies (2008) for the Sustain Blaine organization, provided economic data and analysis for a single year (2006) with no benchmarking to competing resort economies. As a result many of the conclusions from the TIP Strategies report are suspect. Although the overarching goal of the TIP Strategies study is laudable one, many of the conclusions and directives of this study are substantially unfounded and, I assert, are misleading. Given the dire straights of our local economy, more clarity on the origin of our difficulties is paramount to progress.
This is what I set out to do:
Provide a
quantitative, data-based, perspective on the structure of the local resort area economy and identify structural elements which may account for the decline we have experienced over the past 10 years.
This study has established a quantitative economic basis which gives significant insight into the deficiencies of our local economy. Specifically, it has been determined that the Lodging sector of our economy is highly deficient and has been for at least 10 years. Although this comes as no surprise, I have attempted to establish not only the quantitative basis for this conclusion but also some more macroscopic underlying structural reasons for the importance of the Lodging sector to the prosperity of all residents of the resort area, not just Lodging operators and employees. These are important concepts to understand and be fluent with as we, as a community, make decisions that will determine the direction and success of our local resort economy. This work is summarized in
the
presentation which is available at the following link:
Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, or additional input that you might have. I can be contacted via the following channels:
Email: bob@bobyoungman.com
Telephone: 208-721-8404
I propose that the extent to which our community members understand the economic basis of our plight will determine whether or not we, as a community, find our way toward a prosperous future and put
us on a path to smart, compatible, and lasting growth. This work is offered as a step toward a better understanding of our local economy and, hopefully, toward action to reverse the decline of the past 10 years.