Montana in Regional Growth Mode

For whatever it’s past, Montana is currently in a growth mode, economist Larry Swanson, with the Center for the Rocky Mountain West, told board members of the Big Sky Economic Development Authority and the Big Sky Economic Development Corporation last week.

And — "It’s almost like it happened on its own," he said.

"We are in this growth mode and we are pretending like we are dying," he said, "That will be death, if we don’t get on the page with growth." Swanson painted a very upbeat picture about how Billings and other major cities in the state are doing — quite in contrast to the numbers that reflect the state’s economic performance as a whole.

"The mind-set of how to get out of ‘this economic mess’ is just killing us," said Swanson. The fact is there is no "economic mess" for some areas of the state. "Billings has come a long ways" over the past decade or so — "sometimes we just don’t see it." he said.

Trends By Evelyn Pyburn

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