An important debate is playing out this week on the pages of our local daily paper:

Development isn’t economic growth

by Dave Gardner

The Gazette, March 16, 2009

Growth is not a 4-letter word

by Jerry Heimlicher

The Gazette, March 19, 2009

Next installment:

I was glad to see Jerry Heimlicher’s guest column, Growth is not a 4-letter word. This is exactly the dialog our community needs to have. Jerry claims our city budget train wreck is due to the recent lack of growth. He’d like us to believe the outdated, growth-addicted policies he clings to were not responsible for the long, downhill slide we experienced throughout the last growth boom. So of course his solution to the crisis is to increase growth subsidies, in an effort to repeat and even turbo-charge that growth boom. He expects somehow this time we’ll get a different result.
 
His column indicates we should focus on growing revenue, not on eliminating unprofitable behavior that costs our community more than it benefits us. He refuses to consider the most rational solution, because he remains certain that “healthy” growth will solve problems it has never solved. The evidence is clear: growth subsidies are robbing our community of precious resources we could be using to improve our community. And these subsidies accelerate the growth of nearly every problem our community faces.
 
I continue to offer this simple solution: connect the costs of growth with the behavior. Let new subdivisions reimburse the city for all the true costs that for two decades have burdened our entire community. Jerry is afraid to embrace this solution because he fears this would bring growth to a stop. If we have to pick up the costs of growth to perpetuate it, exactly how does that translate into profit and prosperity for our community?

Times have changed. The good news is we don’t have to continue trading away our quality of life in order to have a prosperous, healthy community.

What do you think? Post your comments below.