Can He Make it Walk?
There isn’t a politician today who doesn’t talk about creating jobs and how to get us out of these challenging economic times. It’s our premise however that most don’t have a clue what to do, they sorta talk along party lines, and as we know little gets accomplished.
Enter State Treasure Ted Wheeler who can talk without notes at length on our economic crisis and will provide you a comprehensive wish list of things the state should be doing.
Wheeler, a native Oregonian whose family has deep Oregon roots (the town of Wheeler, on the Oregon coast, is named after his great-grandfather), is a former manager at an investment firm and was the elected chief executive of Multnomah County and was appointed in March 2010 to complete the term of former Treasurer Ben Westlund and then elected in the November 2010 general election.
He comes to the office of state treasurer highly qualified: a BA degree in economics from Stanford University, an MBA from Columbia University and a masters in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Over the past year Wheeler has increased transparency of Treasury data, pushed for money-saving technology changes, strengthened investment travel rules and safeguards, authorized securities fraud lawsuits against firms that misled investors, and announced a revamped 529 college savings plan with lower costs and more options for families.
Managing the state’s coffers, it makes sense that Wheeler was appointed by Governor John Kitzhaber to help draft new economic development strategies for the state.
Wheeler said recently that there’s no tax strategy or social change that can fix the problem of economic growth. We can’t support schools or human services without growing our economy. “Here in Oregon we cannot wait for Washington or Wall Street to solve the problem for us…we’ve always sought our own course…we need to come up with our own solutions. In addition to protecting our state finances, we need to use our tools, experience and reputation to help create an economic develop strategy.”
Wheeler sees a three-prong approach:
1. Focus on business capital, i.e. venture capitalist investment. “All across the business spectrum we hear of a lack of capital, hindering our ability to grow. We need to look for ways to help smooth the way for businesses to come here. So in February 2012 we’re going to put forward the Oregon Investment Act by reforming the existing economic development resources. We have pools of money all over the place, but we can’t identify them, where they are, what results we’re getting. There’s no over all strategy that gives us the best bang for the buck or growing good jobs instead we have fragmented resources.
Embrace the concept of leverage. “You put out a dollar with expectation of getting ten dollars back. We should be leveraging private sector investment in Oregon companies. It can be funded by a consolation of funds including lottery capacity to create a new fund, a first in the nation that encourages investment in worthy opportunities. The loan programs aimed to grow business in this state are totally inadequate.”
2. Infrastructure Investment. “Capital infrastructure helps our economy over the short and the long run. Let’s invest in how we become competitive down the road with freight, roads, bridges, airports, seaports, rail. If we want to support companies here particularly software and high tech, then you need to invest in higher ed, tech training and research development. We need to keep companies here once we’ve invested in their growth.”
3. Human Resources. “We need to make sure we have the workforce that we need for tomorrow including helping with a college education. But it’s more than just getting people into college. Major employers are recruiting out of state because we don’t have people here with the skills they need. We’re proposing an access program in 2014 that will serve as an opportunity fund for higher ed and community colleges.
It’s nice to hear a politician present concrete ideas that could help grow our economy. The question is: can he make it fly? Will the legislature support these ideas or will it get bogged down in party politics? pha
