Is county sales tax building prosperity?

When it comes to the county's half-cent sales tax for economic development — slated to go before voters for renewal on Aug. 10 — there are two absolute certainties.

First, the tax has been a huge success at creating new jobs in Mississippi County. From Roll Coater, to Aviation Repair Technologies, to Lowe's, to Beckmann Volmer, there are thousands of jobs available in Mississippi County that can be traced directly the the existence of the economic development sales tax. Those jobs came both via new industry, as well as through expansion of existing industry.

Second, it is absolutely vital that the county remain aggressive in its pursuit of economic development. No county can afford to rest on its laurels, satisfied with what it already has. This is especially true in counties like ours, where poverty and joblessness have long be a problem.

That said, I think it's worth a look at the big picture before automatically renewing the sales tax.

At the end of the day, the purpose of this sales tax — or any tax, really — is to promote the prosperity of the community. And I think it's important to ask whether or not the prosperity of Mississippi County has improved since the tax was implemented in 2003.

There are any of a number of ways to measure prosperity, and none of them are perfect. One way is with unemployment figures. A year or so before the economic development tax as implemented, the county's unemployment rate topped 15 percent, and was the highest in the state. According to the USDA, unemployment the year the tax began was 11.8 percent. That figure dropped as low as 7.1 percent in 2007, before jumping back up to 13.1 percent in 2009, in the midst of the nationwide recession.

Another way to measure prosperity is with population. Where there is prosperity, the population generally goes up. Where prosperity is elusive, the population generally shrinks. Until the 2010 Census is complete, we won't know exactly what the area population is — most of the numbers out there are mere estimates, based on 1990 and 2000 numbers. But it's been assumed by many that communities like Blytheville will have lost residents in the last decade. With new housing development in places like Armorel and Manila, it's possible that the county, as a whole, has held steady or seen marginal growth. But it's hard to know for sure.

A third way to measure prosperity is simply by looking around. It's a subjective measurement, to be sure, but it's hard to drive down East Main in Blytheville these days, seeing the absence of such places as Mazzios, Bonanza, Pizza Inn, Stage, Crossroads and Starbucks — all having closed in the last decade — and not feel like prosperity is lacking.

One of the problems with the economic development sales tax is that many of the jobs being created are not held by people who live in Mississippi County. To some degree, our economic development efforts in Mississippi County are being used to create jobs for people who live in Dyersburg, or Jonesboro, or Kennett, or West Memphis. Indeed, I was once told that the largest employer of Kennett residents was then-Maverick Tube, east of Blytheville.

I don't want to discount the diligent efforts put forth for our county's economic development team. Again, when it comes to job creation, anyone who complains is simply not paying attention.

But I'm not sure that job growth should be the only goal in mind. Efforts also need to be put forth to make Mississippi County a quality place to live. We need good roads, nice parks, quality health care and safe neighborhoods. We need nice places to shop and dine. Somebody needs to show me how our current economic development efforts are leading to those things.

If approved by voters, the economic development sales tax will be in place until 2023. That's a long time. Perhaps before we embark on another 13 years of the same strategy, it would be prudent to take a step back, evaluate our goals, determine the best path forward, and see if there aren't some ways to be even more successful in our economic development efforts.