Attending:ÝÝÝÝ Valerie Chaisson, and Joyce Peterson, with
subsequent amendments by Clare Wood and Ann Luther
Worksheet
for Framing the Issue and Preparation for Inclusion in State of the Island
Report
Issue area: ÝEconomic prosperity
Questions to help Frame the issue (so it becomes
something we can consider alternatives and actions)
…
What is the issue/opportunity?
MDI shares with Maine localities all along the coast
a struggle to find balance between appealing to tourists and retirees and
offering the kind of infrastructure needed to attract young families and
year-round residents. All Maine towns also face challenges of taxes, labor
force, proximity to markets, and the cost of health insurance.
Other issues include:
o Aesthetics vs. jobs:Ý MDI is fortunate in having two economically strong sectors--biomedical research and boat building--which provide well-paying, year-round jobs with benefits but which nonetheless raise issues in an area dependent on nature-based tourism.
o
Business consolidation
and globalization.Ý Can MDI continue to
fend off national and international franchises?ÝÝ What about consolidation among local businesses, such as hotels?
o
Sharing prosperity with the least prosperous.
o
Maintaining a diverse economic base.
o
Sustainability.
MDI is also fortunate in having a visioning process
like MDI Tomorrow. It offers the opportunity for the people of our island to
decide just what that balance should be-a decision that's intrinsic to our very
identity, and one that all coastal areas will eventually face.
…
Why is this an issue/opportunity something that should be addressed by
an MDI Tomorrow-like process?
By its very nature, the issue of what MDI residents want their island economy to be demands an inclusive community process. The 2002 MDI Tomorrow process also offers an invaluable opportunity to evaluate the current state of the local economy in comparison to the benchmarks set in 1991.
…
Whom does this issue/opportunity affect? How are they affected?
Every MDI resident and visitor, and in some ways every Maine resident.
…
Who are the partners who might be able to address this
issue/opportunity?
o
Larger
year-round employers
o
Representatives
of the tourist industry
o
Chambers
of commerce
o
Environmentalists
o
Working
people
o
Retirees
o
Economic
development people
o
Economic policy experts
o
Small business owners
o
Slow-growth/no-growth advocates
…
What are the implications for local government?
Ordinance and zoning issues, including several now in the news, need to be addressed.
…
For the private sector?
The ability to compromise between tourism and "business" needs.
…
How is this issue/opportunity connected to other issues?
Economic prosperity relates directly to affordable housing, transportation, community health, and community design and land use, and indirectly to youth issues.
…
What are the regional and global trends regarding this
issue/opportunity?
o Decline of some traditional industries (paper) and changes in others (fishing)
o
Steep rise in cost of health insurance
o
Loss of affordable housing to "pre-retirement baby
boomers"
o
Drought
o
State
budget crisis
o
Other trends to be
validated or explored further (except where noted, from the Maine State Chamber of Commerce pamphlet,
"Issues and Answers," distributed to attendees of the Gubernatorial
Candidates Forum, May 6, 2002):
- Maine's per capita income rating has eroded to 36th from 27th in 1990. We are 14% below the national average and 35% below New England.
- Maine is rated 43rd in its ability to succeed in a new high tech economy and has an F rating by the corp. for Enterprise Development
- According to the Washington-base tax foundation, Maine's comparative tax burden (state and local taxes as a percentage of per capita income) is #1 nationally - 33% higher than the national average
- The productivity of Maine workers is 80% of US workers.
- Maine's rate of R&D investment is $225 per employee, the national average is $1,0000 per employee.
- By 2017 deaths will exceed births in Maine. There is a sizable and growing out-migration of young people between the ages of 20 and 35, comparable to Frances loss in this age category in WWII.
- The aging population of Maine is in the top 5% nationally. Within 20 years this category will increase by 50% while the overall population will increase 10%. (implications for Housing, healthcare, transportation systems, and labor force???)
-
While we are ranked in
the top ten for graduating high school students, only 24% of Maine's population
holds a bachelors degree, the New England average is 33%.
- Maine is ranked 49th in tourism spending, tourism investment brings in $14 to every dollar spent. (Governor's Conference on Tourism).
- According to the Commission on Health Care, the costs of services and prescriptions in Maine are higher than in any other state.
- (From the Coastal Acadia Development Corporation, using data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the US Dept of Commerce) 1/3 of the income in Hancock County derives from dividend, retirement, and interest income.Ý Perhaps more significantly, less than two-thirds of the income in our county comes from earned wages or proprietor's income.
1) We
list indicators used during the original MDI Tomorrow process.Ý Are there important figures there that could
be researched and updated easily to provide valuable information (e.g., number
of housing starts, average wage of employees on the island, percentage of the
island dedicated to open space).
Recommend that all indicators-economic and quality of
life-be repeated for 2002 comparison.
2)
Are there any indicators that are missing?
3)
We list any general trends, either from Census
or other data.Ý What other data do we
need to collect to see trends and patterns?
Forward-looking data: national, state, and regional economic forecasts.
4) What
survey questions would help you gather information about these indicators?
Recommend a series of overlapping
questions to get at where people want to see the balance between the seasonal
and year-round economy to fall, prefaced with an "economic development
lesson:Ý MDI is home to businesses and
institutions that offer year-round, full-time jobs, such as boat-building
industries, the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory and Jackson
Laboratory, and fisheries.Ý Some of the
physical infrastructure of these businesses may detract somewhat from the
tourist/retirement economies.Ý Please
assess the following statements:
o
It's
very important for me that there be year-round, well-paying jobs on MDI
(agree/disagree).
o
It's
very important to me that the natural beauty of MDI be preserved
(agree/disagree).
o
Rank
these 5 things in priority for me:Ý
develop tourist economy, continue to make this an attractive retirement
destination, maintain the natural beauty of MDI, offer year-round, well-paying,
full-time jobs with benefits.
5) What survey questions would
help gather information about the vision for this issue area?
In addition to #4, test priority by additional an question such as:Ý I think it's important to have full-time, year-round, well-paying jobs, even at some expense to the natural beauty that the tourist industry depends on.
6)
Does your group anticipate any expenses?
If so, any suggestions on possible funding sources?
No expenses anticipated during the information-gathering
process.