Boy! How has all that money spent over the past 3-4 years worked out for us?

There are times that I am so ashamed of the short sighted, narrow minded, tunnel visioned, looking for the bogyman under every rock comments that show up on this blog. Yes, some of the comments may have been mine but “Good Lord” we have so many talented, skilled and dedicated folks out of work with more layoffs in the near future that we need a professional organization telling our story. But “NO” some idiots want to beat up on one of the few bright and sophisticated marketing efforts this area has ever had the luck to develop.

EDITOR NOTE–Perhaps your shame should be aimed at the commishes. They, not us, stopped spending taxes for ads and promos.
I am ashamed that the County Commissioners have pulled there sponsorship of Boise Valley Economic Partnership. Funny, I know one Commissioner was at the Sun Valley meeting but I can not remember if the other one was there when this initiative was first presented. It was agreed that a local public and private partnership was the only way to gather enough funds to sustain an all out effort to market this area. And that if we all shared in the cost of this effort no one entity would be burdened. And finally, we had no choice because we are in competition with so many other areas of the country that have millions of dollars to put towards their marketing efforts.

History has proven that it is times like these when government either local or state need to double/triple their efforts in courting new businesses. They cannot do it themselves they are not marketing folks, they simply do not have the skills, they are politicians!!! Governments and local businesses need to align themselves with entities who are professionals in marketing to businesses. Now is the time for governments and businesses to clean up processes/laws/codes/comprehensive plans and redefine their missions, it is also time to train staff for the next bubble not cut funding to efforts that will sustain current businesses and market to new businesses.

Boy, they sure did a good job of inviting mega dairys to the region. You can smell the money near Jerome and Wendell. However, they failed to provide the “high paying” jobs associated with mega dairys. Oh well, big ag brings in a bunch of welfare money to be spent at the local WalMarts.

Idaho needs to take the stand. If you want to live here then pay your fair share of Taxes. Anytime you give all these busniness tax break to make them come here,then they will leave as soon as a better offer comes there way. Is this thinking so wrong?

Costaprettypenney, let me take this down to what I consider the basics. Success is meaured by results. Way too many dollars were given for no discernible results. You can moan about the pulling of funding by the short sighted commission, but you certainly couldn’t complain about being “released” due to poor performance and no results. The Chamber wasted a bunch of our money!!!

Cy, looking at the issue with only one eye kind of limits one’s perspective. Come to the next BVEP meeting (they are open to the public). Then comment on progress or lack there of. Call the Boise Metro Chamber as to when the next meeting is scheduled. But before you go, take a look at their Web site (http://www.bvep.org/). The site contains valuable information for any company whether they currently are doing business here or they are considering relocating to the area. They also have a quick response team that can meet in person with a prospective business prospect.

ATTENTION: Business men and women. Your financial GOD has spoken…

Infinite growth on a finite planet is going in history’s dustbin of stupid ideas.

The Inflection Is Near?

By Thomas L. Friedman
March 7, 2009

… Let’s today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: “No more.”

We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese …

We can’t do this anymore.

“We created a way of raising standards of living that we can’t possibly pass on to our children,” said Joe Romm, a physicist and climate expert who writes the indispensable blog climateprogress.org. We have been getting rich by depleting all our natural stocks — water, hydrocarbons, forests, rivers, fish and arable land — and not by generating renewable flows.

“You can get this burst of wealth that we have created from this rapacious behavior,” added Romm. “But it has to collapse, unless adults stand up and say, ‘This is a Ponzi scheme. We have not generated real wealth, and we are destroying a livable climate …’ Real wealth is something you can pass on in a way that others can enjoy.”

Now heres a conundrum I been ponderin out on my horse. Most people in dear ol Ideeehoho tend to think that just about anyone in business is a whole lot smarter than anyone in the government.

At the same time, a lot of people on this here blog, and everyone at BVEP, seem to think the government needs to run a recruitment program to lure, entice, to educate, bamboozle, you name it, far away businesses to move to our little chunk of paradise.

My conundrum is this: If businesses are so smart, what is our marketing program going to tell them that they don’t already know? And, if they are too stupid to know about us, why on earth would we want them to move here? Either way, the marketing money looks like a waste.

I say, save the money for something better.