EDC members reminded of need to promote Tucumcari

QCS Managing Editor

Tucumcari City Commissioner John Mihm urged fellow members of the Greater Tucumcari Economic Development Commission board of directors at their September meeting to take promotional literature about Quay County with them when they travel out of town.

When he attended an out-of-town convention recently, he said, he took some literature with him and was able to hand some to a furniture manufacturer looking for a new location for his manufacturing operation.

The manufacturer, he said, is now looking at a Quay County location, and Mihm said being prepared with literature helped to persuade the manufacturer to consider the county as a location.

“Businesses aren't looking for us,” Mihm told the board at its Sept. 23 meeting. “We aren't on their radar. We have to get the word out.”

Patrick Vanderpool, executive director of the economic development corporation handed out a card that contains information about various incentives available to businesses that start or expand in Quay County.

“We've got to go after them,” he agreed with Mihm. “They're not knocking the door down.”

Vanderpool reported, however, businesses that locate or expand in New Mexico based on promised tax credits too often find those tax credits are denied. The denials, he said, are creating a negative perception about ”whether state government does what it says it will do.”

“This is something we have to be careful of on a local level,“ Vanderpool said. “We have to be careful for the technicalities.”

Vanderpool said he learned about this issue at a Sept. 15 meeting of the Jobs Council, an interim committee of the state legislature.

At that same meeting, he said, how the state measures success in economic development received scrutiny.

Mark Lautman, a former state economic development official now working as a consultant, told the Jobs Council that the state lacks a cohesive set of metrics and standards by which to measure the impact of economic development efforts, and that accountability suffers as a result.

Vanderpool said the only measure that the state economic development commission is allowed to use to measure economic development impact is jobs created. The state should also be considering items like exports, increases to tax base and effects on personal income, he said.

Vanderpool also said the metrics should align with those used in other states to give potential businesses an “apples-to-apples” comparison of what New Mexico has to offer, compared with competing locales.

State economic development officials are meeting in October, he said, to determine what kinds of data are already available to develop into effective metrics.

“We don't see a need to re-invent the wheel,” he said.

The Jobs Council, he said, also set priorities for 2015 legislative session, including additional funding for the state's Job Training Incentive Program and the state's Economic Development Partnership.

Other matters discussed at the board meeting included:

∞ A request to look into tax credits that could assist the Kodiak Produce Co. plant in Tucumcari to add coolers. Doug Powers, Tucumcari city manager, made the request.

∞ The success of recent state freight transportation workshop the economic development center helped to host in Tucumcari. Improvements on Interstate 40, making U.S. 54 a four-lane road and safety enhancements were suggested.

∞ The success of the U.S. Department of Agriculture housing meetings hosted at the Tucumcari Convention Center.. This event received the best attendance among the state, with 77 area residents appearing., according to Ernie Watson, public affairs representative. Tucumcari Commissioner Rick Haymaker said USDA representatives ran out of applications forms at the session.

∞ The Pure Energy Expo scheduled for Nov. 10-11. This event gathers members of the Coalition of Renewable Energy Landowners Associations to discuss issues related to renewable energy development in the region.