California's Top-3 Economic Development Issues.

I was recently at the California Association of Local Economic Development (CALED) Spring Conference in Palm Springs, CA (April 21-23rd, 2006). It was a bit suprising to listen in to the very interesting debate on California's economy. Through a number of sessions and keynotes, the top-3 economic development priorities that came across from the session were (in no particular order): California's high costs of doing business and its inability to attract enough manufacturing jobs into the state; the effectiveness of "incentives" to attract businesses and industries into California; and strategies to lure business away from other states and into california. This debate touches upon several important themes in local economic development. These include the possibility and ultility of "economic development wars" between states trying engage in zero-sum game to attract businesses. Especially the fact that sometimes states can give away more in incentives than they can attract from a business that is "shopping" around and playing states against each other. The most surprising message, however, that should give us some pause was the notion that even the mighty California cannot have its own way in its attempt to build a truly high-tech. economy--that manufacturing--no matter how you see it--remains the backbone of today's information economy as it was in yesterday's industrial economy. More on that in a later post.