11/4/2009 6:00:00 PM EDITORIAL/Economic development
A comprehensive economic development plan is what city and county leaders are asking the John C. Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University to help them develop.
Within six months to a year, officials should have an economic plan in place to "better position ourselves to attract business and industry," said Obbie Riley, president of the Board of Supervisors.
Mayor James Young supports the initiative that includes a wide range of studies, planning workshops and community input.
A preliminary report reveals some staggering statistics for Neshoba County, such as the overall poverty rate of 22.6 percent.
The poverty rate among children under 18 was 30.2 percent here, compared to the state average of 29.4.
Neshoba County lost about 1,600 jobs between 2005 and 2009 in establishment-based employment by industry.
Neshoba has enjoyed unemployment rates lower than the state average from 2001 through 2008, but since January, when the gaming industry went bust, the unemployment rate has exceeded the state's.
Much of the economic data isn't new. A strategic plan five years ago revealed similar findings. A state economist said then that the strength of the economy was clearly gaming and tourism, which makes it vulnerable.
"With so much of your resources in that industry, that suggests that you're going to have some boom and bust years," Darrin Webb, the state economist, said in 2004.
The Stennis Institute should enable community leaders to objectively review, establish and successfully achieve redevelopment and economic revitalization goals that will propel our community forward and, especially, give our young people brighter hope.
