Matheny has developed an elaborate economic development plan that he will present at the beginning of the 4:30 p.m. meeting...

In great detail, Matheny’s plan focuses on creating shovel-ready development sites, incentives for development in east Greensboro and such major deals as the proposed Project Haystack data center park.

It's not clear from the article if the N&R has had the chance to analyze the plan, which does not seem to be on Zack's campaign website. I hope the public can see it soon, and that it addresses some of the questions raised here about data centers and their role in our overall econ dev strategy.

This stuff is not easy.

Comments

[Don Moore]

The more elaborate the plan, the harder it will be to accomplish. Successful plans are easy to understand and easy to support.

[Hartzman]

Considering Zack has campaign contribution connections to almost every incentive deal that went through the Econ Dev Committee he chaired, it looks like he's fishing for contributions to fund his Congressional campaign.

[Polifrog]

I look forward to seeing what this plan is. Here's to hoping it is easy.

[Mark Sutter]

From The Business Journal. We'll be following.

http://bit.ly/1jZb0qn

[Mark Sutter]

The point being, Catherine's above story contains a link to her October story on Zack's report... and it's really more of an outline than a plan.

[Polifrog]

It appears "Zack's Plan" is not easy, it's just vacuous.

So while simplification, "easy" as some might denigrate it, is a hallmark of brilliance, those who would reject simplification as off topic are themselves simpletons embracing needless complexity.

[Polifrog]

Here is someone who would eschew Matheny's vacuous embrace of micromanaged economic plans that benefit big whales, big government and to a lesser degree Greensboro as a whole.

Rand Paul spoke to Greensboro on the topic of economic development last night:

…I have an idea that will empower Americans and give them the opportunity to thrive. My plan is to create economic freedom zones in distressed areas all over the country, including my home state of Kentucky, which will leave more money in the hands of the people who earn it. In economic freedom zones, we’ll cut income and business taxes to a single flat rate of 5 percent. We’ll cut payroll taxes for employers and employees so folks will go home with more money in their paychecks. Burdensome, job-killing regulations will be removed, and business will expand. More money and more jobs will flow back to the areas that have suffered the most in this economic crisis. School choice will be expanded.

Ryan points out the opportunity cost associated with rejecting ideas based on their simplicity, in this case trusting Americans to create collective positive results from the fertile soil of individual need and desire. It is that easy ... simply trust your neighbor.

[Billy Jones]

Zacks plan can be found here.