The Las Cruces minimum wage debate has thrust the question of economic opportunity and development into city politics. Economic analysts say raising the minimum wage is no silver bullet. Spurring growth and raising opportunity demands a mixture of targeted strategies and initiatives. What else is the city of Las Cruces is doing to generate economic opportunity.
When the recession hit cities across the nation, Las Cruces felt the brunt of rising unemployment and cutbacks in business expansion and economic growth. 7 years later while many cities have returned to pre-recession conditions. New Mexico State University professor of Economics Jim Peach says Las Cruces still hasn’t bounced back. Peach says it largely due to the city’s dependence on government jobs that were slashed and haven’t returned.
“All of that is either government direct or highly subsidized by health that has not been a growth level for many year-so our core industries are not growing” he says.
This is not only a problem in Las Cruces, it’s also a challenge across New Mexico, where job growth has nearly flat lined. The top Las Cruces employers are New Mexico State University, White Sands Missile Range and Las Cruces Publics Schools. In fact Memorial Medical Center is the city’s only private employer among the top eight.
Peach says for Las Cruces to attract industries and companies that are generating jobs in the current economic environment it will mean overcoming a diverse range of challenges. Las Cruces has been reaching out to major companies to lure them to move here or expand. And this has had some success. City councilor Nathan Small participated in a collaboration that brought Franco Whole Foods, a food processing facility to Las Cruces, along with 160 new jobs.
“The local incentives as well as the state incentives that were offered, were an important part of their decision to come here” he says
Despite the occasional success Peach says the approach often turns into a race to the bottom, a bidding war between different cities and states offering tax breaks and incentives.
“That is not the first thing corporations look for when they look for a place to locate. What they typically look for first is a work force that can do the job” he says.
Peach says the quality of the work force is directly linked to the quality of education and economic prosperity. And he says Las Cruces is faring poorly in those areas. Though education policy is governed on a state level. City Councilor Nathan Small has worked extensively on initiatives like a job to career boot camp to fortify the pipeline between education and employment. Small says programs like that allow Las Crucens to better capitalize on skilled labor opportunities coming from developments like the Santa Teresa inter modal facility.
“We need to highlight and build from those blocks and realizing that that investment in our citizens is the only thing that is going to make us attractive for growth to come here. Other wise we become a shell the kind of place folks pass through on their way to other vibrant healthy dynamic communities”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZYlPiz2_DU&feature=youtu.be
Small’s colleague Mayor Pro Tem and City councilor Greg Smith is working on another initiative designed to improve economic development, efforts that enhance the city’s culture and environment. One project involves building a plaza downtown.
“For a long time LC hasn’t done a very good job of establishing itself as having its own character. So we have sort of tried to be like other places or tried to be something that we are not or we have simply floundered with out a sense of our place" he says "What I have felt is important about our downtown or our plaza some of those kinds of efforts is what do we do to try and establish that sense that you know there are things here there has been a cultural presence here for at least 500 years. There have been historical things, archeological things – there are paleontological things, there is certainly nature. There is a lot going on here that we haven’t really coalesced that into a message.”
You may question how architecture and redevelopment boosts economic opportunity. Peach says things like the farmers market and a established downtown contribute to quality of life key for attracting and retaining high skilled workers, entrepreneurs and innovators.
“We can provide the types of things that can make this an attractive place to live. Even the hike and bike trails that are slowly growing in Las Cruces, that is a really good thing, people expect that in a modern city. You can do all those kinds of things and we have been doing some of that. This is a very different place than it was 30 years ago”
Peach says Las Cruces could still be doing a lot more to take advantage of existing opportunities
like the transfer of university research into the market and improving roads and infrastructure catering to new development.