Nathan on:

Taxes

Jobs

Education

Healthcare

Public Safety

The Environment

Affordable Housing

Open Government

Private Property Rights

District Elections

Parkside

Land Use

Buncombe County must be a place where entrepreneurs can not only start businesses, but grow their business in our community. The national trends demonstrate that large businesses are shedding workers while small businesses are hiring new employees. This is certainly true here in Buncombe County.

Over 60% of all people employed in Buncombe County work for a firm that employs less than twenty people. I will continue to fight for the concerns of our large employers, especially our manufacturers. I have repeatedly helped them with providing economic incentives, addressing skyrocketing health care costs, and supporting the Employer’s Coalition of North Carolina's legislative agenda.

The key to economic vitality in our community is to have a balanced economy that is not too dependent on any one industry. We cannot rely just on our area's traditional sectors of healthcare, tourism, manufacturing anymore to be successful; we need to reach out to high-tech firms and other business that can provide our citizens with good-paying jobs.

Small businesses are the foundation of our economy, and in Buncombe County small business is big business. Government can assist small business in many ways, primarily through a reasonable tax and regulatory burden, good schools, and a healthy infrastructure --- both human and material --- to support and encourage their growth. I'm proud to support organizations such Mountain Biz Works, A-B Tech Small Business Center & Incubator, Handmade in America, and Blue Ridge Food Ventures.

High economic and too much regulation destroy jobs, and I will continue to fight against these policies. I have supported increased funding for our schools despite a difficult financial environment, because good schools will ultimately mean good jobs. And, I have pushed for expedited highway improvements in Buncombe County from the NCDOT as well as supported a capital replacement program for the water and sewer systems.

An interesting article on what makes a community a good place to do business is Rich Karlgaard's article in Forbes entitled “Where To Get Rich.”

Business Incentives

In the competitive world of economic development, Buncombe County must become more aggressive at assisting our existing businesses to expand and attracting new employers to our community.

When meeting with businesses contemplating expanding or moving to our community, I have always asked one question: What will it take for you to locate or expand in this community? While business incentives should never be the primary tool for a community’s economic development efforts, I have and will continue to support incentives comparable to other communities with which we compete for good-paying jobs. We must never lose these jobs because the county failed to step up to the plate when it counted.

Over the past several years, we have funded millions of dollars in incentives to existing businesses such as Eaton Cutler Hammer, Sonopress, CPU2, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Deltec, Unison (formerly Smith's Aerospace which is now a subsidiary of GE), and Jacob Holm Industries.

I'm also proud to support local agriculture with the creation of the Small Farm Initiative through the NC Cooperative Extension service.

Incentives will never replace the lack of a skilled workforce, infrastructure problems, and high economic. But there must be balance: adequate incentives along with good workers, good roads and water/sewer systems, and a fair tax rate.

The county has explored all options including the establishment of a speculative 40,000 square feet industrial shell building at the Asheville Commerce Park off Sand Hill Road. This site offers a Class A industrial building which is expandable to 80,000 square feet. With site selection decisions being more compressed partnership between the county and Fletcher Partners helps our community compete with neighboring cities who have many spec buildings to choose from.

You can download the EDC's annual report here.

High-tech Jobs

In the 21st Century global economy, the only path to high paying, living-wage jobs is to improve the skills of all of our citizens. No matter what the industry, manufacturing, health care, personal services, or technology, the key to good pay are good skills. Without those skills, we cannot recruit new companies to our area and we cannot help existing companies expand. The first question (and probably the second and third questions) companies ask when considering relocating here is: Will we find the skilled people in Buncombe County that we need to fill our jobs?

We've had some recent successes with the addition of high tech jobs with companies like Unison, Netriplex, AVL Technologies, SRC Earth Sciences Group, and Borg Warner Turbo Systems. We need to do better in this area and as Chairman, I'll continue to fight for our county so we can compete against communities all across the nation and world.

Regionalism

I have always worked with other local governments and with the State of North Carolina and the federal government; the economic challenges that Buncombe County faces do not stop at the county line. And the reality is, that for Western North Carolina to be successful in the 21st Century, Buncombe County (with the largest metropolitan area in WNC) must lead the way to prosperity for citizens from Marion to Murphy. We must work together with our neighbors in the spirit of fairness and cooperation to succeed and prosper.

For further information on business relocation and expansion, the Buncombe County Economic Development Coalition is a useful resource. This coalition is a partnership between the City of Asheville, Buncombe County, and the Asheville Chairman. As Chairman, I've been actively involved with these partners to help our existing companies retain and increase high paying jobs, as well as working to recruit new companies to our area. I've worked tirelessly with our EDC board members and staff to do whatever it takes so that companies will grow their workforces right here in our county.

I'm proud that whenever I have received a phone call from a plant manager, met with a small business owner, or sat down with a company considering relocating here, I have left no stone unturned in trying to meet their needs.

Without strong and growing private companies, our community will not have the funds to support our citizens in education, healthcare, housing, and so many other critical needs.

We need good jobs in Buncombe County so our citizens have the opportunity to realize the American Dream right here at home.