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Reversing course: Event outlining area's economic outlook draws strong crowd
By BRIAN WRIGHT
Staff Writer
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| "I've never had anything negative to say about Maricopa (the last few years). ... I've had many, many more problems dealing with the bigger cities. I feel like everyone here knows what they're doing." - Jim Rounds (economic analyst) |
My how things have changed since then.
About 80 people attended Maricopa’s 5th annual Economic Development Outlook Event at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club on Thursday morning, and Rounds was one of the guest speakers. In front of a crowd that included investors, real estate professionals and local business representatives, Rounds, senior VP at Elliot Pollack & Company (an economic and real estate consulting firm) said Maricopa has come a long way in the last five years and that it has a much more competent leadership structure (city council, city staff) in place than many other large cities he deals with in the Phoenix metro area.
“I’ve never had anything negative to say about Maricopa (the last few years),” Rounds said. “I’ve had many, many more problems dealing with the bigger cities. I feel like everyone here knows what they’re doing.”
Rounds gave a presentation on the state of the economy and said although it will rebound before too long, it will take some time for employment levels to get back to where they were before the recession.
He also cautioned against misleading statistics on the economy.
“A lot of people make a big deal about the unemployment rate dropping — completely meaningless,” Rounds said. “If you’re in a meeting, and somebody says, ‘Things are looking better because of this’ — it doesn’t mean a damn thing.”
Rounds said the unemployment rate dropping is insignificant because if people aren’t looking for work, they are no longer included in the unemployment rate statistics.
While he forecasts an economic recovery, he said it will be gradual. He said 2012 will be a large improvement over this year and that 2013 will be even better. The amount of jobs lost in Arizona after the downturn was significant, but Rounds said that also means Arizona’s percentage of job growth will be among the nation’s best when it starts recovering. But he said the actual number of jobs in Arizona won’t return to pre-downturn levels until approximately 2014 or 2015.
Casey started the event with a presentation that covered the development progress in Maricopa over the last year. Many of the projects she discussed were concrete examples of why Rounds’ opinion of Maricopa has done a 180 in the last few years.
Some of the biggest aspects of Maricopa’s growth that Casey touched on included the (in-progress) building of the Banner Health Facility, the groundbreaking for a local Central Arizona College campus (Dec. 16), and two municipally-driven projects Maricopans will see soon — a new city hall and a recreation/multi-generational facility.
Alan Stephens, state director of Arizona Rural Development for the USDA, was the second guest speaker. Stephens said his department infuses a lot of grant money into rural communities (population less than 50,000). While Maricopa currently fits the “rural” profile (population 43,482 at 2010 census), it will surpass that designation in the near future. The USDA has given grant money to Maricopa, and Stephens said Maricopa’s use of those funds represents one of the bigger successes he’s seen in rural Arizona.
The USDA is also a big proponent of alternative energy sources, and Stephens said it has provided more than $150 million in grants for renewable energy and energy efficiency.
The entire event will be rebroadcast on Maricopa20 TV, which can be watched via the City website at www.maricopa-az.gov.More City economic development information can be found at www.maricopamatters.com.
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