An Economic Development Plan Is Vital For Future
A Powerful Plea For Economic Development
BorgWarner Plant Manager Bill Liacone met with Water Valley city officials last Thursday (see story on page one) to discuss the ever increasing tax burden placed upon the local plant.
During the discussion, Liacone said, “I am assuming that part of your responsibility is to work with the county to develop the economy of this area. It comes down to (this), if there isn’t more economic development in this county our problems are going to continue.”
That’s powerful stuff coming from the top official at Yalobusha County’s largest employer.
And, BorgWarner’s problems are our problems, too. If nothing changes, we all could be paying more.
That said, another story on page one shows that supervisors made an important step in the economic development effort last Friday with the appointment of six board members.
Economic development efforts in Yalobusha have been mired down with politics for many years. Yalobusha supervisors seem ready to put their best foot forward by making these appointments and allocating money from the 2007-2008 budget to fund this economic development program.
It is time to put differences aside between municipalties and work together for the common good for Yalobusha County.
In other areas of our state, multiple counties are joining resources to promote economic development. The thinking is, if a new factory comes to one county, then it will certainly help neighboring counties. When Toyota announced they would build their next North American automotive assembly plant in the Wellspring community, the alliance between Pontotoc, Union and Lee counties was the driving force. More recently, Tate, Panola and Tunica counties have also agreed to work together to promote a megasite located on northern Panola County.
The trend is that economic development is much larger than one town, or in many cases one county. However in Yalobusha County getting all the players on one agenda is an important step in a positive future.