Since moving here in 2003 millions of dollars have flowed through this county in the name of economic development. Economic development agencies like the Port of Coos Bay and SCDC funnel state and federal funds and local taxpayer dollars toward projects advertised to improve local prosperity, entice new business and create jobs. What are the results?

To name just a few because I know I am forgetting something…

$51 million gas pipeline
$35 million airport (someone argued that the number is really $50 million)
$59 million in ARRA funds ($22 million administered through the Port)
$5 million of $60 million in allocated dredging funds
$16 million to purchase the Coos Bay Rail Link
$25 million rail line rehabilitation
$3 million in feasibility studies

Total $194 million or $24.25 million per year.

Add taxpayer subsidies to urban renewal and enterprise zones and we are talking a big chunk of change.

$30 million in tax revenue allocated to urban renewal (estimate)
$20 million in enterprise zone tax exemptions (estimate)

In the name of economic development roughly $30 million per year has been spent in Coos County, just since 2003, in the name of job creation and yet unemployment has risen from 8.7 to 11.4%. That’s $92 million per negative percentage point! Income levels have not kept pace with state and national averages.

In 2009, Coos County’s per capita personal income reached $31,614. Coos County’s PCPI was 87 percent of the statewide average and 80 percent of the U.S. average.

Perhaps we are going about this economic development stuff the wrong way…