Column: Matt Benda, My Point of View

Economic uncertainty continues to permeate our daily lives. The European debt crisis continues to ebb and flow toward possible meltdown; unemployment continues to be persistently high; and our local tax burden continues to escalate.

In spite of these dark clouds, our community remains strong and perhaps even optimistic. We are, of course, good Minnesotans — we complain about the weather and moan about politicians not getting the job done. Yet, we will never fall to the level of feeling sorry for ourselves. We remain vexed over our failure to capitalize on our proximity to two major interstates. Yet, an outsider will face our wrath if they even suggest that we are a depressed community or that we cannot land that one big employer. Loving our community is simple and natural.

Beyond this unfailing community pride, we also are blessed with a good community work ethic and a strong sense of community connectedness. These community intangibles are rarely quantified (with the Blue Zone exception) and rarely show up in strategic planning exercises. Nonetheless, these are strengths that we should foster and certainly need to tell others about. Please consider a few other community strengths that we should foster.

 

Infrastructure

A healthy, skilled and educated workforce makes our community attractive to economic growth and makes our neighbors happier. A happy neighbor makes for a stronger neighborhood. We must continue to make Albert Lea a place where people want to live, work, play and raise a family.

Education from pre-school through skill training is present in our community and should continue to be a top priority. Good roads, clean water, quality homes and good commercial properties for business growth are necessary if we want to succeed. Our housing stock is probably too aged and needs to be strengthened and prepared for expansion. We must also remind our local leaders that investments in community infrastructure cannot be sacrificed under the banner of tight budgets.

We should also demand better outcomes from our local government. Do we need a city hall and a government center to take care of just over 30,000 people that live in our county? Sharing services continues to be the latest buzzword but is not enough to strengthen our community in the long run. Local government needs to be completely reinvented to meet the needs of its citizens.

 

Community wealth

Growth of community wealth is also crucial to our future success. We need businesses and individuals who are willing to create new jobs, increase our tax base and generously contribute to community causes.

We must resist the trend toward relying on government to provide for our community needs. A strong tax base is imperative to our success, but a “soak the rich” culture will certainly stall all community momentum.

We must advocate for local, state and federal policies that encourage investment in our communities and allow for new wealth to be generated. We should fight to keep more of our wealth at home from the start, not to be diverted through bureaucratic processes that politicize outcomes and then “trickle back” to us as a government program.

It is glamorous to pursue the American dream, but too often lately, those that start to realize this dream are treated as villains. As a community, we should be able to openly advocate for the increased availability of capital and the growth of wealth.

 

Foster our economic driver: agriculture

When I graduated from law school, some of my counterparts suggested that I would never succeed if I called myself an “agricultural lawyer.” Their argument was that this label was too narrow and there would be no business to be found. Fortunately, I did not heed this advice and now I am proud to be part of the ag-based economic growth engine.

A recent study by the Economic Research Service predicts demand for agricultural products will grow by 70 percent to 100 percent by 2050 due to population growth, energy demands and increased incomes in developing countries. We are on the frontline of this trend with a strong agriculture-based economy; a proven track record of providing high quality further processed foods and biofuels; and of course, we are at the intersection of two main interstates.

 

Support our local safety net

Our new residents must feel welcome and receive local support. We should continue to strengthen our own local agency providers such as the United Way, Youth for Christ and our local churches. Today’s food shelf recipient can easily be tomorrow’s new hard working employee. This month’s rental assistance recipient is likely to be next year’s newest entrepreneur. This is the American way — we help our own and they help us in return.

This American upward mobility was once explained by Abe Lincoln, “The prudent, penniless beginner in the world, labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself; then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him.”

All of these tangible and intangibles strengths are already present in our community. In face of certain continued economic challenges, we must be vigilant in pushing these topics to the forefront of public dialogue. The decisions that we make now will certainly empower us to succeed in the future.

 

Matt Benda is an Albert Lea attorney, community advocate and lifetime member of the Republican Party. To view this editorial with links to cited reports and articles, go to www.tiltingagainst.blogspot.com.