2005
Occasional #1

Hi

This is the first of several "occasional" papers I will do this fall. I attended a regional legislators’ conference in Canada last week, with some key national speakers, and thought it could be of interest to some to get in on a bit of that.

For those who have not been there, central Canada is flat. Huge lakes are surrounded by land which appears to be flatter than the water. I picked up a good quip for my personal use. The Premier of Saskatchewan is also a pastor.  He said he spent his pastoral career fighting sin and finally decided to go where the action is.

John Austin, a public policy wonk from Brookings Institute, was the most interesting presenter, in that he is future oriented and took a global view, helping us to see where our states fit in with the big picture.  In Europe, regions that center on a city pay more attention to each other.  As, Geneva and London. For us, more networking of cities will pay off. (The proposal to join Lincoln and Omaha in national promotion fits in with this. We then become one of the top 50 centers in the U. S.)

He spent a lot of time comparing the plains states to the seaboard states.  We are going well. Omaha is growing faster than the average city in salaries.  We have more shared economies and trade flows than we used to. For Nebraska our gross product is less than when our raw materials were our major economic asset. Now it is "Bread and Brains" …. Food and educated young people. Nebraska ranks high nationally in college education.

Race problems continue, with some old attitudes holding us back. Several told us "Immigrants will make you rich." That has been true for 200 years and has not changed. It is not the shallow thought of ‘cheap labor’ but the desire to develop new gifts as assets which produces results. Minneapolis understands that, is developing its immigrant population, and is going great. Detroit once was with it and had explosive growth, but is resisting immigrants now and is in trouble. He and others emphasized that creative/diverse cultures have a major correlation to growth.

(For non-Omaha readers, we are currently in a huge bruhaha which is basically racial. We are developing school systems with a painful racial division, it is getting worse, and we do not have a clue as to what to do about it. We have 75% of the African descent students in one district where the European descent students are becoming fewer every year. On a recent night I sat by a high school senior, Hispanic, who was being honored for his achievements. He is obviously bright, socially at ease, speaks without an accent, and loves our schools and city. But he came to this country only 8 years ago and our tuition policies are that he should leave Nebraska. He will go to Pennsylvania for a business masters. I groan at the thought of shipping out a young person who feels he owes so much of who he is to Nebraska. There goes an economic asset. A future mayor?)

High-tax states are growing fastest in personal income – which goes against the old cliches about taxes inhibiting growth. Really depends on how taxes are used.

The keys to growth, which is the major question every state came with, are innovation and knowledge. Higher ed is a huge asset, especially for older workers, who will stay. Since their graduates tend to stay, community colleges are a big driver of growth. Our Homeland Security programs are a handicap to us nationally because we are now blocking many foreign minds from coming here for an education and future skilled employment.

Innovation is the strongest competitive tool we can use. The states doing the best on this connect their universities with research parks, where businesses, new and old, share the stimulation of research genius and business innovation. Ruth and I toured one that is simply exciting. Lab workers in five buildings have one cafeteria, so they have to mix it up. Some of the new businesses in the ‘park’ have as their sole job to pick the minds of grad research students and find development $$$ for application of those ideas.

The Plains States can become a center for energy, transportation and environment, which will be some of the most productive fields. We must expand our concepts of infrastructure. It is not only roads, but also facilities/labs/transportation/new data. A university which goes global, with direct international connections, will boost the state.

Higher K-12 standards will improve the economy. Early childhood education is an investment that will pay big dividends economically. Clearly, it is long-term.

We tend to wait for the economy to magically improve. Not going to happen. We are shifting to a services economy but still do not tax services, which is a major handicap to education.

The sessions were well attended, with a lot of side chatter. Future subjects for my emails: our nation’s founding fathers compared to present leadership, stem cell research, Omaha school systems, taxing priorities.

Cheers to All,

    Lowen