Soap Box: How long will we hit the snooze button while economy is threatened?

by Larry Schuster

October 6,2007

When the alarm clock sounds early in the morning, it sure is easy to slap the snooze button.

A persistent effort by west-side Missourians to move the Medical School to Kansas City; the loss of MOHELA funds at the University of Missouri-Columbia; the slowing of sales tax revenue; and now the pending loss of approximately 50 percent of the employees at 3M surely are alarming to all.

It may be easy to dismiss the Central Missouri Development Council's summer admonition to give serious attention to the health of our local economy as a sign of the council merely beating its own drum. However, if we pause to consider additional occurrences—such as the decline in average annual wages, rising entry-level housing costs and the saturation of the construction industry—maybe it is time to roll out of our slumber and get to work.

We have long ballyhooed our recession-proof economy. Our economy is dependent on major inter-related industries and a large spin-off industry. Education and health care are the biggest services we provide to mid-Missouri. Construction, both commercial and residential, are next in line to those economic generators.

As we participate in an effort to create a life sciences corridor along Interstate 70, the high-tech, cutting-edge jobs we seek to lure with our unique quality of life are leaving instead of arriving. A consultant recently declared "quality of life attributes" are losing ground in importance while economic costs are being considered more critically. We have not added a single new major employer since Quaker Oats opened the rice cakes plant several years ago. 3M is a high-tech employer. Its hourly employees—like those at most manufacturing companies—are highly skilled and have received advanced training in their respective fields.

As economies tighten, adjust and either gain steam or grind to a snail's pace, one thing is certain: Quality of life does not mean squat to a laid-off worker or unemployed person.

If we spent only a fourth of the green dollars and a fourth of the green effort promoting economic development, where would we be? A spouse of a 3M management employee with 30-plus years of service called to vent that "the good mayor speaks ill and does not know what he is talking about. I am more angry about the total ignorance by our community of what makes our economy run than the impact of this job loss on our family."

This example is real. Without broad-based employment opportunities, today's competitive economy will leave inattentive communities behind.

Much should be gleaned from 3M's downsizing. This firm at one time employed nearly 1,200 individuals. We are down to approximately 500. Of them, 240 are to be laid off, including 200 hourly employees and balance-management types. The loss of 40 salaried positions is serious. In the case of 3M, we should be wondering how long before the remaining employees will be laid off.

Our "affluent stupor" must be shaken off before it is too late. Former Missouri Rep. Chris Kelley often boasted that Columbia and Boone County citizens should embrace every statewide tax proposal because, as a community, we gained more than we paid. Missouri, however, has evolved into a very conservative tax state. As such, no longer can we rely on a predicable infusion of tax spending to fund our municipal amenities. If it takes two or three ancillary jobs to support a manufacturing job, we are essentially losing 500 to 750 jobs throughout the community.

It is time to wake up.

Our attention must be seriously directed to the expansion of employment opportunities. During the ‘91 or ‘92 budget hearings, former Parks and Recreation director Dick Green commented that staffing levels in parks and recreation had returned to pre-layoff levels from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. I wonder how our green and amenity-laden council would deal with a 10 percent municipal layoff. Maybe one of our council members who is a public-sector employee will lose his job and the wake-up call will become a real-life experience.

Larry Schuster is a former city councilman and political observer.

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