Economic Development

Economic Development is defined differently in every community and the definition changes from time to time. In today's Branson, it may mean the creation of a half dozen jobs that are not retail related. Next month when we are chasing another big box store it might mean retail clerk jobs. In general, it always means jobs and money generated from NEW activity.

Every single NEW job created will help pay for other existing jobs in the community. When Johnny gets a job, a tiny little piece of his paycheck is used to pay Sallie at the grocery store and another tiny little piece is used to pay Frank at the auto repair shop. Then a tiny little piece of Sallie's paycheck is used to pay Timothy's paycheck at the pharmacy. Frank uses the money he got from Sallie to pay for parts at Hank's store and the fingers of cash stretch out.

Branson is blessed with an extremely good percentage of the cash flow being what is called Basic Income. Basic Income is money from activities and sales and service to external entities. See, using the examples above we see that all the members of the chains of cash flow are members of our society. In Branson we have the luxury of outside money always being inserted into the mix. With that in mind, the flow might start with Hazel and Fred spend the week visiting and they spend their money from Iowa here to buy motel night stays and rent fishing boats and eat at the buffet and ride the go carts and see the museums. Their money is used to pay a part of Jimmy and Harold and James and Sue' pay check. This means we don't just circulate the money among our community, we have that special piece of the puzzle nearly every town in America wants, other peoples money. There is only one problem ( well, probably more than one) , Other people sometimes don't spend as much. Other people sometimes stay home or stay here less and spend less.

We need more diversity. That does not mean less of the tourism industry. It means even more of the tourism industry AND some non-tourism industries too. Yes more tourism industry is needed. More diverse tourism. Winter activities, big adventure activities, Different Music shows from the Branson norm, different, different, different. So different I can't imagine what it is. We might see that with a change in attitude. Not just at my favorite whipping boy (City Hall), but everywhere else including my very office.

I sometimes wonder exactly what I would have said to a nice family who came to me and said they wanted to buy a old worthless cave and charge people to come see it and eventually add retail stores that they also intended to charge people to go shop in. I often think about how crazy it must have sounded to a banker when he was asked to loan money to build a big theater in a hay field 4 miles from a small fishing spot in SW Missouri. Isn't it fortunate for all of us that the local politicians back then did not publically humiliate those investors by questioning their integrity, financial worth and marketing abilities.

We need to add more diverse tourism features to Branson and Taney County. We also need to add non-tourism industry to our mix. Small assembly plants with 30 or 40 employees would be a great start. Warehousing businesses who can ship to the three or four counties around should be welcomed. Mid level office users with access to today's 25 megabyte internet access can move here from nasty Cities and bring with them their spouses and children to add to our workforce while raising our per capita income levels which in turn will aid in attracting even more office dwellers who will spend their money on haircuts and produce and dry cleaning and etc.

Branson has so much to offer. Great schools, wonderful entertainment, beautiful environment, low crime, cheap airfare, fantastic people and so much more and all we have to do is find the way to welcome new business to town.

How many more times are we going to have great prospects try a business venture in Branson only to tell us they NEVER want to go through that nightmare again? It's the City, it's the people, it's the newspapers, and it's even the guy down the street. They had every roadblock imaginable thrown up before them by the City, the local newspapers had long opinion pieces from know-it-alls who never bothered to go get the facts, or it had the local gossips running all around the town and the internet spewing nasty criticisms of every move they made and questioning the validity of the project.

No, I am not writing about one business in the above paragraph, I am writing about dozens. Some still have a presence here but are quickly growing elsewhere, some gave up and left and some are still fighting to even get opened. The short term answer is we have to develop a new attitude to begin developing any economic generators. I assure you these businesses are VERY welcome elsewhere. We need them to be welcome here.