A number of years ago, Nutfield Publishing came out with an editorial on economic development and growth in our communities, saying that it was “the belief that it is the magic pill towns need to curb rising tax rates.” It wasn’t then, and it isn’t now, particularly because just as it was the case at the time, if salaries and the cost of taxpayer-paid benefits continue to rise, aging infrastructure may continue to fail, and the demand for services will remain unchecked.
But regardless of the hard work required to craft budgets that respect the taxpayers’ dire financial straits, the beacon of economic development, growth, and change still shines as a goal for our communities. However, pouring money into development staff salaries may not be the way to go during tough times.
In Derry, the economic development committee struggles to create a downtown without a clear vision or mission, except to make it “better”. It wants to be defined by its downtown, but doesn’t seem to have a plan to do so.
The next town over, in Londonderry, the Woodmont project is well on its way to seeing fruition, along with the construction of high-density apartments, traffic issues, etc causing it to follow in Derry’s footsteps. But bigger is not always better.
Sure the more businesses that spring up may create more jobs and apartments will bring in more residents who could help stimulate the town’s economy, but the bigger our towns get, the more money it will require to sustain them. Like a teenager going through a perpetual growth spurt, they may never be satiated no matter how much we feed them. And so our taxes will continue to rise to try and compensate for our growing pains.
On the surface, it may seem that all this development is for the benefit of the towns’ residents, but as hundreds if not thousands of residents struggle to heat their homes and put food on their tables, but pay for municipal employees’ cost of living raises year after year, along with covering the cost of development through all of their rising taxes, one has to wonder who really comes out on top.
Change is like fire; it can be the fuel that keeps us going and the source of light to guide us into the future, or if left unchecked, it can really burn us. At some point we need to stop and really consider what flames we as taxpayers are fanning.
As we said before, the wellbeing of our communities in the long run depends on far more than one or two new developments. It will take a lot of longstanding planning, consistent improvements to our existing foundations, and a regard for the taxpayers’ billfold.