Last week, Governor Daniels came into town. His comments served only to remind me of the continuous distortions and lies that are spewed out of the mouths of our Northwest Indiana leadership. Not that I needed his help.
Daniels talked about the great things he expects of these learned old men of NWI called the Regional Development Authority. With the Governor’s optimism at my side, I looked for the brilliant ideas these visionaries are hatching. Alas, the words great and RDA do not belong together. The mantra that they do is lie and distortion numero uno.
The first thing the RDA did was to look for consultants. Just what everyone else does in Lake County governments. This is what is meant by Lake County Politics. Everyone knows the RDA is as political as anything in NWI. But who are these consultants? The apparent know-nothings of economic development. One consultant advised planting a flag and saying that the Hammond Technology Park is in the aviation test bed business. Plant the flag; say the words, and . . . Voila! You’re in the aviation testing business!
Now why didn’t I think of that? Where is or what is this technology park’s competitive advantage? Hey, don’t bother me with details. I think I’ve seen this movie . . . where the girl with the ruby shoes only has to click her heels three times and wish to be back in Kansas , and Voila! It happens!
But surely the wise old men on the RDA had the insight to see through this because they have knowledge about economic development. At least that is what the law calls for as their qualifications.
So I decided to look at their first real economic development decision (not where you economically develop the consultants; but NWI). Their first decision? Where to put their millions of dollars belonging to the citizens of NWI?
The answer: Our bright old men decided to deposit the money with three out of area banks: JPMorgan-Chase (New York), Mercantile-Harris (Chicago), and Horizon (LaPorte and Eastern Indiana). Our brilliant RDA on their first decision economically developed New York City, Chicago, and Eastern Indiana. For banks, millions of dollars in deposits is economic development because deposits determine reserves, which determine how much the bank can loan and therefore grow.
For a community it is economic development because how much money there is to borrow allows for expansion of local businesses. What happened to Centier and Peoples’ Banks, which are locally owned? Their funding would result in true economic development.
Lie and distortion number 2 can be summed up in one word: Cabellas. Unlike the movie, no matter how often Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. says retail development is economic development; this does not make it so.
And last week, “my man Mitch” also said no to the $40 million public underwriting of Cabellas in Hammond. This was the right move and decision for anyone with an ounce of sense.
Mayor Jr. has not gotten past the third grade in governing for economic development. Retail business is never, ever, economic development. And, in urban areas, you never, ever turn green spaces into concrete. Only the incompetent would think of turning 100 year old trees into concrete and call it development in the middle of a city.
The RDA and the Mayor of Hammond, so far, have two things in common. One they are completely political therefore they blow with the wind of who pays them. Second, they have not the foggiest idea of what they are doing in economic development.
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