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Butte on the Move: UM economist advises Butte
Cities are the economic growth engines of Montana and communities need to develop strategies to ensure vitality and build quality, a University of Montana economist told a Butte audience Monday night.
Economy and Business By Leslie McCartney
of The Montana Standard
Instead of gloomier statistics cited in various community economic reports, Larry Swanson said that Butte has shown growth in various sectors, but cautioned that local people need to chart the community’s path. With so many communities vying for attention, Butte needs to work with its surrounding counties to ensure that it maps its own course for the future. "You make the difference for this community — every community has economic development, but they need more people looking over their shoulder, " Swanson said.
Swanson’s lecture was sponsored by Butte On The Move, which is part of Montana On the Move, an economic development effort. Swanson is the associate director of the Center for the Rocky Mountain West of the University of Montana, which helps sponsor the Montana On The Move program.
He added that local leaders, organizers and boosters also need to study what is happening in their community to know where to invest time, money and effort so that it pays off.
"You can’t do it by the seat of your pants; it is a learning process," Swanson said in a two-hour talk peppered with charts, graphs and tidbits from the state and local economies. Swanson acknowledged some "tension" in the Butte economy, but noted that while natural resource-based industries are declining, service-oriented industries are increasing their presence.
The per capita income in Butte has crept up during the last couple years and several facets of the economy have shown real potential, although not on the scale seen in the state’s other seven larger cities and population centers.
For example, health care has experienced strong growth in Butte as well as other "human-resource" based businesses, like real estate, insurance, banking and engineering and management services. Swanson said the whole state is moving to a human-resource based economy, where professional services are becoming the heart of growth.
Swanson worries that the state is under spending on human-resource development, whether it be in job training or education. By being short-sighted and not investing in its workers, the state will be unable to meet and capitalize on the demands of businesses and society.
"We’re disinvesting. Change will still happen, but we won’t be able to ratchet it up," he said.
He reiterated the importance of using knowledge, demographics and thoroughly studying a community and economy to understand how to position itself for growth. Most of all, communities need to take ownership of their destiny.
"Economic development is a matter of positioning," he said. "It’s going to take folks staying with it. Who else is going to figure it out? Will it be in Helena every two years? I doubt it," he said.
Montana On The Move programs are also sponsored by the Public Policy Research Institute, the University of Montana and the Foundation for Community Vitality.
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