Montana Development Chief, David Gibson, Widely Praised

The state’s chief business officer, Dave Gibson, is elated over the recent legislative session’s passage of key bills he believes will help spur Montana’s economy.

By:
Charles S Johnson
Billings Gazette

Gibson, a businessman, returned to his native state 20 months ago as Montana’s new point person on economic development in Gov. Judy Martz’s office. He put together the state’s Office of Economic Opportunity, created by the 2001 Legislature.

"We have a Legislature that meets every two years and makes big decisions," he said. "We got basically everything we wanted to get done done. We had huge bipartisan support on all but the tax proposal."

The new laws include measures to reduce income tax rates and capital gains, to extend the life of some economic development programs, to create an intermediary re-lending program within the state Board of Investments, to create a primary workforce training program and to provide for recertification of certified communities.

Lowering Montana’s top individual income-tax rate of 11 percent to 6.9 percent should elevate Montana from 38th to 30th place in the important Small Business Survival Committee rankings, Gibson said.

The tax bill, Senate Bill 407, was the subject of intense partisan debate before passing, with Democrats arguing that the wealthiest would get the largest dollar amounts of income tax breaks, while Republicans said poorest Montanans would get the largest percentage of tax breaks.

"We haven’t had major tax reform in years," Gibson said. "The tax thing is huge. We have had this 11 percent marginal rate scaring the dickens out of people."

Gibson said his office has been involved with local economic development organizations on some big projects that have been announced: the International Malting Co.’s malting plant in Great Falls, the grain-loading elevator for

Anheuser-Busch in Sidney and a wireless broadband company brought to Butte. He is working with local economic development officials to attract a national company’s regional headquarters in the state.

Businesses looking to expand or relocate in Montana expect to be able to deal with someone at the state level with close ties to the governor, Gibson said.

"The governor’s influence here is actually very important," he said.

In the case of the malting plant, several issues arose, including a water rights question involving Giant Springs State Park, that could have threatened the state’s chances of landing the project. His office helped work out the problem in about five hours by calling a meeting with key state government officials.

"I asked them (a senior engineer for the malting plant), ‘What else do you need?’ " Gibson said. "The guy said,

‘We’re fine. We just had to make sure since we’re building a $60 million plant, the state government is prepared to squash any issue that came up."

Gibson said he’s not implying "we did it alone and we’re the heroes," because there’s an important role for everyone at the state and local level. He emphasized the need for strong local economic development organizations.

"It’s important to have the state level and it’s important to have the local level," he said. "You can’t have one without the other."

"And if you screw up, the project goes to South Dakota," he said. "If the storefront looks uninviting, no one walks in the door."

Gibson gets high marks from a couple of key members of the Montana Economic Developers Association, comprising local economic development officials.

Paul Tuss, executive director of Bear Paw Development Corp. of Havre and president of the state association, said Martz couldn’t have found a better person than Gibson for the state business officer’s job.

"I’ve talked to legislators on both sides of the aisle that are very supportive of not just the office but of Dave personally and of the management style and the leadership that he’s brought to economic development as a public policy issue," Tuss said. "I think he’s done a good job and the office is very necessary and I’m pleased that this past legislative session decided to continue to fund this office."

Tuss said the association of local economic developers have believed the state office is really needed because economic development needed the higher profile of having someone in the governor’s office work on this issue.

"I think Dave Gibson has done a very good job, considering that essentially what they were trying to get done out of that office was starting at ground zero," said Evan Barrett, executive director of the Butte Local Development Corp. and legislative and public policy chairman of the Montana Economic Developers Association.

Barrett said the delivery of economic development services at the state level is much more coordinated than it ever was before, and key bills passed.

"That’s an awful lot starting from ground zero 21 months ago." Barrett said. "Now the rubber meets the road at this point. The plans are in place and the legislation’s in place. Now it’s about producing jobs."

Gibson profile

– Name: Dave Gibson

– Job: Chief business officer for the state of Montana since August.

– Age: 41.

– Birthdate: May 9, 1962, in Kalispell.

– Education: Bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics, Harvard University, 1984; master’s degree in business administration in finance and operations, Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, 1993.

– Family: Wife, Marca Robbin Gibson, and two children, Gage and Holt.

– Employment history: Manufacturing manager for Frito-Lay Manufacturing, 1990-91; Began working for Weyerhaeuser in 1993. Worked as business analyst in 1993-94; project director in 1994-96; director of finance and planning, 1996-98; president and general manager of Dynetherm Inc., an independent business unit