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WHAT IS
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?
By DENNIS R. WHETSTONE
Director, Illinois Department of Commerce & Community Affairs
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The Illinois Department of Commerce &
Community Affairs' (DCCA) new mission statement
says that DCCA is the "lead state agency responsible
for improving the competitiveness of Illinois in the
global economy resulting in prosperous, growing industries, rising real incomes and high quality jobs."
But the agency's programs and services encompass a
wide range of activities - tourism, help for local governments, workforce training programs, assistance to
low-income people, technology assistance, site and
building location assistance, small business assistance
and many more. How do all these programs fit the definition of economic development?
Think like a mayor. As mayor, you are vitally interested in the future of your community. You want it to
be a great place for families to live and visit, with prosperous businesses, plentiful jobs, convenient services
and a healthy environment.
You're interested in infrastructure because you
know that without access to safe and adequate water
supplies and waste treatment, safe roads and other
foundations, people and businesses will not want to
live in and locate in your community. You're interested
in workforce development because you want to ensure
that businesses in your community have the skilled
workers they need to stay competitive in a global marketplace. You also know that the future of your current
businesses, as well as your ability to attract more businesses and jobs, depends on a continued supply of
skilled workers and adequate infrastructure.
You're interested in maintaining and improving
the quality of life for residents in your community. You
want to ensure that low-income families have decent,
energy efficient homes in which to live and the ability
to pay their winter energy bills. You want to provide
services to homeless people to help them get back on
their feet. And you want to help low-income and disadvantaged people find employment opportunities
and learn the skills they need to be productive employees.
You know that if your community is to grow, you
need to encourage existing businesses to expand and
attract new businesses and jobs. That's not just large
factories - it's also encouraging entrepreneurs to start
new businesses, like the corner cafe, the dry cleaning
shop and others that provide the services your citizens
need.
You have a nice community. You want others to enjoy it. You're interested in promoting your community
and its resources to tourists who will spend their dollars in your hotels and motels, restaurants and shops
while enjoying the sights.
If all of these things are beginning to sound familiar, it's because they are all addressed by the programs
DCCA administers. The Bureau of Community
Development, for example, helps smaller Illinois communities address their infrastructure and housing
needs through the Community Development
Assistance Program (CDAP). Job Training Partnership
Act (JTPA) programs and the Industrial Training
Program (ITP) help train people in the skills they
need to be productive employees. Community Service
Block Grant (CSBG) programs provide loans to help
start businesses that provide jobs to disadvantaged
workers, as well as many services to help low-income
people break out of poverty. The Low Income Home
Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) helps low-income families pay a portion of their winter energy
bills, while the Illinois Home Weatherization
Assistance Program (IHWAP) helps low-income families make their dwellings more energy-efficient.
DCCA's Business Development Bureau provides
June 1996 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 21
site selection and technical assistance to help attract
new businesses to Illinois, as well as services to help
existing businesses grow, such as export assistance.
Through the First-Stop Business Information Center
and the Illinois Small Business Development Center
Network, DCCA helps entrepreneurs and small business owners find answers to their questions, locate
business capital, start new businesses and expand existing ones.
The Bureau of Tourism promotes Illinois and provides assistance to help local communities and regions
market themselves in this fast-growing industry, and
also promotes Illinois as a site for film and television
production. Coal Development and Marketing programs work to find and market new, environmentally-safe methods of using Illinois' greatest resource. The
Bureau of Energy and Recycling promotes sustainable
economic development by encouraging alternative energy resource development such as ethanol; improving
energy efficiency in residences, buildings and factories
which also helps reduce costs; and by supporting recycling and waste reduction programs, including the expansion of markets for recycled materials. These programs facilitate the efficient use of natural resources
while helping to minimize negative impacts on the environment
What is economic development? A mayor knows.
He or she knows that a community that looks to the future and addresses its needs will be a competitive community that attracts and keeps prosperous, growing industries. Those industries will provide high quality
jobs that pay the kind of rising real incomes that can
fund the parks, schools, infrastructure and other public services that make others want to visit and make the
community their home. With the right help, a mayor
can close the circle into a continuous cycle of development.
DCCA was created in 1979 to be Illinois' lead economic development agency. The various community,
workforce and business development programs were
merged under the DCCA umbrella for a reason - because they all are essential components of our state's
ability to improve its competitiveness in a global economy. Today, more than ever, DCCA must recognize its
unique ability to be the state's "one-stop" economic development agency. Understanding that role, and the
ways our various programs fit into the overall mission,
is the first step toward fulfilling that mission. •
Page 22 / Illinois Municipal Review / June 1996
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