New law charges GOED with syncing economic strategies

By Brice Wallace 

State government’s economic development efforts could be in for some sweeping changes as a result of legislation passed during the general session.

SB172 requires the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) to consult with other state agencies involved in economic development and produce a written strategic plan “that contains a coordinated economic development strategy for the state” and states that the strategy consist “of a limited set of clear, concise and defined principles and goals.”{mprestriction ids="1,3"}

The bill, sponsored by Senate Assistant Majority Whip Ann Millner, R-Ogden, gives GOED an Oct. 1 deadline to finish the report.

“This is going to be a big thing for us,” Val Hale, GOED’s executive director, told the GOED board during its March meeting, conducted by telephone. “It’s going to be a comprehensive look, including workforce [matters].”

The report is just one part of SB172, which also includes various economic development amendments. To develop the strategy, GOED will coordinate with and collect information from other state agencies, including the Department of Workforce Services, Office of Energy Development, the State Board of Education, the State Board of Regents, and the Utah System of Technical Colleges Board of Trustees. The report will include recommendations for policies to further the strategy and outline the functional role in furthering the strategy for those agencies.

SB172 requires GOED to “establish specific principles and make specific recommendations to decrease competition and increase communication and cooperation among state-level economic development agencies, providers and administrators of economic development programs in the state, nonprofit entities that participate in economic development in the state, and local governments.”

It also requires GOED to recommend “a fundamental realignment of economic development programs in the state to ensure each program’s purpose is congruent with the mission of the organization within which the program is located.”

“We don’t have very long to do this,” Hale told the GOED board. “Oct. 1 today may sound like a long ways away, but this is going to be a very heavy lift. And it’s also, I might add, going to put us in a very difficult spot because the bill is asking us to come up with recommendations to restructure or realign other government divisions.”

Hale hinted that the report could be controversial. “We can come back with two proposals: one that is politically correct or politically acceptable to everybody, where everybody’s really happy, or we can come back with a proposal that will really make a difference and may not be the most popular.”

“We have some ideas,” he said. “It’s really quite a big lift for us over the coming months. It’s going to consume a lot of our summer, I’m sure.”

The bill offers GOED the opportunity to be involved in shaping economic development legislation going forward, he added. “It’s something that it is good that we’re doing it and someone else isn’t doing it and telling us, ‘This is what you’re going to do.’ At least we have a say — a major say — in what’s going to happen.”

Mel Lavitt, acting GOED board chairman during the meeting, agreed.

“We can put a stake in the ground, and I would think we have a much better idea than people not at GOED telling us what we should do,” Lavitt said. “We can always figure out how to do things differently or better, but I don’t see this as a complete overhaul of what we’ve been doing.”

SB172 also requires GOED to establish goals and principles to ensure the strategy works for both urban and rural areas of the state, and to provide recommendations on how existing rural economic development programs should be restructured or realigned. GOED also must assess the effectiveness of the state’s economic development incentives and make recommendations regarding them.{/mprestriction}