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Do you have an idea about the future of small towns? Are the ideas you see not quite hitting the mark? Propose your own idea for the future of small towns!
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Job Opportunity Building Zones (JOBZ) and other economic development programs support job creation in greater Minnesota. But are subsidies attracting new jobs or just taking existing jobs from other parts of the state?
Mixed success for JOBZ program
While advocates of economic incentive programs such as JOBZ point to new jobs in the target communities, others suggest that such incentives are merely moving jobs from one part of the state to another. [Source 1, Source 2, Source 3]
Some incentives do work
The Greater Minnesota Business Development Infrastructure Grant creates partnerships with small towns across Minnesota to build public infrastructure. It's had some success at bringing jobs to greater Minnesota towns. [Source 1]
Broken promises?
The state allows communities to create subsidy agreements with businesses in exchange for promises of job creation. However, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development reports that companies only created about half of the jobs they promised in subsidy agreements from 1995-2003. [Source 1]
More from MPR:
 Six months into JOBZ, there's mixed news
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Ideas for: Government & policy
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(1 vote) | | Build state-funded, municipally owned power generating systems
It's interesting that you use the word generator in your description of this program. Because that's the idea I would like to propose.
I am a member of the Clean Energy Resource Teams for Southeas... Read more
From Nick Nichols of La Crosse, WI on 05/31/05
 1 comment |  Vote/comment on this entry |
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(44 votes) | | Create a rural-urban coalition
Politically, small towns need to form a coalition with central cities. Rural areas and the inner city have substantial need for state support. Only by overcoming the suspicions of rural areas for the ... Read more
From Jeff Kolnick of Marshall, MN on 05/26/05
44 comments | Vote/comment on this entry |
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(3 votes) | | Merge basic municipal services
Minnesota has too many counties (for that matter we also have too many legislative districts too). The unification of low-population counties could expand the tax base of a given region to reduce the ... Read more
From Chris Dart of St. Paul, MN on 05/23/05
3 comments | Vote/comment on this entry |
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(2 votes) | | Reuse downtown buildings
This concept is best suited to "larger towns" with large areas--even whole blocks of empty or under-used historic old retail buildings. Towns like Winona, Glencoe, Litchfield have so many empty, and ... Read more
From Sandy Bucholtz of Minneapolis, MN on 05/20/05
2 comments | Vote/comment on this entry |
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(6 votes) | | Bring more state employment opportunities to outstate Minnesota
The State of Minnesota (as an employer) should consider moving departments to various locations in out-state Minnesota. This would spread civil service employment opportunities over a greater share of... Read more
From Andrea Johnson of Lake Elmo, MN on 05/19/05
6 comments | Vote/comment on this entry |
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(2 votes) | | Create incentives to attract young residents
Several places are experimenting with ways to attract young people: forgiving student loans, eliminating or reducing income taxes, assistance in purchasing a home. Is there something along these lines... Read more
From Victoria Ford of Saint Paul, MN on 05/15/05
2 comments | Vote/comment on this entry |
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(9 votes) | | Create regional township centers
Well for one thing small towns could draw a circle around them of twenty or so miles and call it a regional township center, they could even have a number or a name to be known by.
Then the region... Read more
From Richard Johnson of St. Cloud, MN on 05/10/05
8 comments | Vote/comment on this entry |
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Do you have an idea about the future of small towns? Are the ideas you see not quite hitting the mark? Propose your own idea for the future of small towns!
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