While national headlines scream bad tidings of great trepidation, the local picture is much brighter. In St. Tammany Parish, our unemployment rate is about half the national average and is about two-thirds of Louisiana’s rate. While retail sales and, thus, tax collections are down from the last two years, the data show a significant spike from pre-Katrina days, before the false economy of storm recovery sent sales rates and taxes into the stratosphere. And in the midst of all of these things, there have been many bright spots in the economy over the last year.
Major corporations continue to consider St. Tammany a prime location for expansion and relocation. Last spring, 3001, Inc., expanded its operations in Slidell. The Rooms To Go warehouse and retail center in Pearl River opens this month. And we have been visited by countless site-selectors from national and international corporations who are looking at the northshore as the place to be for operations along the Gulf Coast. Indeed, we can hardly keep up with the requests for information and proposals that come into our office – an operation staffed by only four full-time employees and with an annual budget of barely $250,000.
And although government organizations get most of the attention, a lot of the focus is on crisis and conflict, not progress. Consider the major infrastructure improvements being undertaken all over St. Tammany, funded with federal, state and local dollars. The Highway 1088/I-12 interchange is closer than ever to becoming a reality. A new exit to Highway 21 has officially opened near Covington, preparatory to major retail expansion. New schools are opening and continuing to rank among the best in the state. Crime is low and fire protection levels are high. All in all, the northshore is a very snug place to be right now. In fact, one national study recently ranked Louisiana the second-best place in the nation to ride out the recession. (The best was North Dakota.) And another study ranked New Orleans and Baton Rouge among the best cities for recession survival.
The future will not be without difficulties, both foreseeable and unforeseeable. But regardless of what stressors we face, the economy of St. Tammany has shown itself to be resilient and adaptable and, above all, solid.
Our location itself is an incredible boon. How many sites can boast such proximity to a major port and four Interstates? Add to this the locations of UNO, Tulane, Southeastern, Delgado and other institutions of higher learning, and we have a recipe for success. Not only do we have a healthy unemployment rate that indicates available labor, but we have the means to educate workers and the infrastructure and geography to make site selectors look here first. We have, in fact, the most important commodity to any region right now: jobs.
If the data alone weren’t enough to convince you that things are OK, consider that in the midst of this downturn, the Economic Development Foundation is launching our own fundraising effort to expand our operations. We couldn’t do that if things were as bad as some believe. In fact and on the contrary, now is the perfect time for us to expand as we work even harder to keep us rolling along in the right direction.
With our colleagues in the I-12 Alliance, a cooperating partner in Louisiana Economic Development (LED, formerly the Department of Economic Development), participating investors in EDF and the extraordinary blessings already on St. Tammany in terms of infrastructure, geography, education and quality of life, there is no real doubt that our tomorrow will be even brighter than our today – and that our present, in fact, is already brighter than our past.
The last year has brought its challenges, but the biggest one was the prevailing belief that things aren’t good. Overcoming that perception is one of the keys to our ongoing success as the Economic Development Foundation and to the success of the community we serve. Economics doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It takes into account every facet of our lives and can impact our lives in positive or negative ways. Working together, optimistically and with an eye on tomorrow, we can keep those impacts positive.