Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
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Fifth District U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello moderated the program by video teleconference from Washington, D.C. At the head table are (from left) Mark Heath of the EDC; former governor Gerald Baliles; federal officials John Fernandez and Ron Bloom; and consultant Mac Holladay. |
Sunday, February 28, 2010
By MICKEY POWELL - Bulletin Staff Writer
The federal government’s job is to assist in the economic recovery of Henry County and Martinsville, not develop and implement a recovery strategy, two of President Obama’s economic advisers told community leaders Friday.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) can provide aid after working with local economic developers to figure out what type would be relevant, according to John Fernandez, assistant secretary of commerce for economic development.
In the process, “we really want to be your strategic partner,” said Fernandez, who also oversees the EDA.
Federal officials should provide aid when necessary and then “get out of the way” and let local officials administer it however they think is best, said Ron Bloom, Obama’s senior counselor for manufacturing policy.
In deciding which projects to fund, the EDA places heavy emphasis on ones showing collaborations and regionalism, Fernandez said.
Today, “the real competition is across the oceans ... not the county down the street,” he said.
He added that the county and city “should feel good about” agreements they have to share revenues from companies locating on certain tracts in some area industrial parks.
Such agreements are “not very common” among localities, Fernandez said.
Fernandez and Bloom spoke during a panel discussion on local economic issues Friday at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. The event, which included a presentation of a local revitalization strategy, was organized by 5th District U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Albemarle County.
Fernandez was mayor of Bloomington, Ind., from 1996 to 2003. Two years after he assumed that office, Thomson Consumer Electronics (formerly RCA) closed its television manufacturing plant there, resulting in the loss of about 1,200 jobs.
Fernandez has been widely recognized for his work with community leaders to stabilize the city’s finances after Thomson closed.
Bloom, a former investment banker and an alumnus of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, is from Pittsburgh. The city “saw its share of hard times in the 1980s when the steel industry collapsed,” he said.
But it bounced back and became a center for high technology industries, according to information on the Internet.
The Henry County-Martinsville economy was centered around manufacturing for many years, but the community has lost thousands of jobs in that sector since the late 1990s.
Perriello was in Washington on Friday and participated in the discussion via videoconferencing technology. Noting that Martinsville’s unemployment rate officially is more than 20 percent, he said the actual rate is “probably even higher” if people who have given up on their job searches are figured in.
Economic problems in Henry County and Martinsville were “not of the making” of anyone locally, Bloom said.
Recovery may take years to accomplish, he said, acknowledging that people who have lost jobs and homes “don’t want to hear that.”
In the meantime, people should be patient, he indicated.
“We took a long time getting into this mess,” Bloom said. “We’ve got to climb out of it step by step.”
Bloom, who helped develop financial restructuring plans for General Motors and Chrysler, said the needs of manufacturers continue to matter to the federal government, even though manufacturing has declined in recent years.
“You create wealth by making things,” he said, even if they are not typical items considered to be manufactured. He mentioned movies as an example.
“Manufacturing built the middle class,” said Bloom.
Also, manufacturers receive 70 percent of patents issued and account for 70 percent of research and development done nationwide, he said.
Bloom said the government can help businesses by making sure regulations are sensible.
“They shouldn’t impede the man who wants to build a business,” he said. “We want to reward people who want to make it in America.”
Jessica Barba, a spokesman for Perriello, said Friday’s discussion stemmed partially from a letter that the Martinsville Bulletin sent to Obama in August, asking for federal help in preparing a local economic recovery strategy.
Obama visited the area during his presidential campaign. During the visit, he talked about such a strategy and promised to remember the community if he was elected. |
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