SOME THOUGHTS ON CITY GOVERNMENT.

Alan L. Joplin

1. ECONOMIC DIRECTION: The choices involve realignment
of the city's economic boundaries: new business frontiers
or reliance on established industries.

A. To what extent should the city's economy be oriented:
toward long term growth an the provision of quality jobs OR to short-term
growth through the, provision of a quantity of job
opportunities?

B. To what extent should the overall direction of the
city's economy be: the capitalize the economic base
through reliance on its traditionally strong features
and roles through the development of new roles
and functions?

2. ECONOMIC PURPOSE: Goal-oriented issues concerning
personal in- come and area economic product.

A. To what extent should the city government attempt
to: maximize gross area product OR personal income
through the provision of employment? To what extent should the city's economic base be directed:
toward maximizing city tax revenues OR toward maximizing
personal income through employment?

3. LOCATION PERSPECTIVE: View will affect inter-structural decisions.

A. To what extent should the city's economy and economic
development be viewed as: complimentary to OR competitive
with the rest of the region's economy? To what extent
should the city focus economic development on: the
central business district OR on sub-regional retail
commercial centers in the outer areas

4. CLIENT PERSPECTIVE: Orientation will determine types
of people in need of manpower development, education or special assistance.

A. To what extent should economic development strategy
be oriented to: those persons who are marginal labor
force participants and in the greatest need OR toward
those persons who contribute most to the city's economic
viability?

5. EMPLOYMENT AND WORKFORCE PREPARATION: Limited job
opportunities and training resources present tough
choices: to fight brush fires in saving existing jobs
in individual firms, or encourage expansion in incubating
industries; training programs for what population sectors;
school curriculums more directly defined by employers.

A. Sectors

1. Should the city take an economy-wide sector or individual
'firm' approach to dealing with the employment related problems of our
economy?

2. To what extent should the city's job development
efforts be directed to attracting new industries and
blue-collar jobs to the city as opposed to retaining
marginal or declining industries through supportive
efforts?

3. To what extent should the city concentrate on the
manufacturing sector because of its capacity to absorb
persons of differential skill levels or rely on remedial
measures and the growth potential of non-manufacturing
sectors to reduce the decline in jobs.

4. Should the city promote the growth of locally oriented,
regionally oriented Vs nationally oriented firms?

5. To what extent should job development efforts be
aimed incubator-infant firms and industries as opposed
to older, established industries?

6. Should the education sector be viewed as a source
of employment/jobs for the currently unemployed?

B. Work Skills

1. Should the city's basic approach to upgrading labor
skills be to rely on public education, special manpower
services for the unemployed or on-the-job training
programs?

2. To what extent, and how should, Davenport pursue a
'full employment' strategy; acquisition of basic skills,
work orientation through public education vs. manpower
services - special job training?

3. How much input should the business community have
in defining the curriculum of primary, secondary, vocational
and higher educational programs?

4. Should the Davenport's City administration encourage
a more manpower-oriented view of basic role of education
in Davenport or continue to view education as primarily
a means of socialization cognitive development?

5 Should Davenport shift the manpower education emphasis
away from secondary vocational education to the out-of-school
population through continuing adult education programs?

C. Access

1. What combination of jobs that are low skill/slow mobility/
low wage vs. higher skill/faster mobility/higher wage
should the city promote?

2. Should the city undertake to directly improve the
wage rate of marginal jobs (i.e., unionization) or
supplement workers' income through transfer payments

3. How should the City's job development program to
the currently "unemployable" segment be handled:
through incentives for employment or through supplemental
payments to achieve a minimum income level:

6. CITY GOVERNMENT ROLE: These issues determine what
leverage points ought to be emphasized in affecting
a strategy and will determine relations with private
sector.

A. Intervention Roles

1. How much emphasis should the city place on economy-wide
effort. i.e.,

rehabilitating infrastructure vs. intervening in the
economics of individual firms or types of firms?

2. Should the city support uneconomical private jobs
and be an employer of last resort?

3. Should the city resist the trend toward the privatization
of public functions a assume responsibility for private
functions, especially where they may be uneconomical?

4. Should the city's own hiring policies be geared to
fluctuations in the local economy to hire surplus labor
in periods of high employment locally?

B. REGIONAL

1. Should the city use the location of public facilities
as an agent of sub-regional economic development?

2. Should the city encourage the decentralization of
economic activities out side the central core through
incentives?

C. Use of City Resources

1. To what extent should the city management of bonds,
equities, pension fund, be guided by the needs of Davenport?

2. To what extend should the city invest money in already
constructed but vacant capital facilities as opposed
the constructing its own?

3. What should the city's posture as a primary purchaser
of goods and services be in relation to the small business
community here in Davenport--should they receive preference
in bidding, should it extend more liberal credit policies,
should it provide a faster payment of obligations to
local businesses?

7. INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIREMENTS: These issues were considered
because the sizes and types of requirements selected
are key to city capital investment decisions.

A. Transportation

1. Should the primary orientation of the mass transit
system be maintained and reinforced (to serve the residential areas and service functions)
or should future investments in mass transit be concentrated
on the links between residential areas and sub-centers
of economic activity outside of the Central City District?

2. How should transportation policy relate to job creation?
Should it stimulate job development in certain areas
by improving the service before the jobs are created or should it follow the creation of jobs?

3. Should improvements in the system be geared towards
the movement of people or the movement of goods?

4. Should the transportation system facilitate access
to jobs outside the city?

B. Space

1. What should be done about mixed residential-industrial
areas? Should they be maintained or should the balance
be changed? If so, should housing get the priority
or should industrial expansion get it?

2. Should new industrial areas be created or should old
ones be expanded?

3. Should the city decentralize the location of public
facilities?

4. In terms of space for expansion of businesses, should
the city concentrate on an individual firm or group
of firms approach or should broader interventions be
considered?

5. Should the city facilitate the acquisition of space
(through zoning, tax abatements and other incentives)
or should it get involved more in direct assembly and
purchasing of land?

6. Should job-producing activities take precedence over
other functions such as residential uses in the allocation
of newly available land.

8. TAXATION:

Note: There are issues involving the impact of the structure
of economic activity on tax revenues, i.e., has the
change in economic activity in Davenport resulted in
a revenue loss? Someone has said: "The service
revolution has debilitated the City's property tax
base." The Scott Commission report shows that
if the 1970 structure were the same as the 1960 structure,
Davenport would have received more income from its
taxes, although one table shows the difference would
only have been of the order of $17 million.

Tax Policy and Economic Development: Only an extreme
exercise of local tax policy can prevent those normal
processes of birth, growth and decay. While a minor
source of irritation, tax policy might, at the same
time, be an instrument which could be used to assist
the orderly transition to a new condition.

A.Should the city shift to taxes more responsive to
economic growth? (Income and sales taxes as opposed
to business and property taxes) OR Should the city
slow the decline in manufacturing and wholesale trade
because those sectors tend to yield more tax revenues
per employee or should it increase assessment and tax
rates for the other sectors?

B. Taxation Mechanisms

1. To what extent should tax policy be viewed as an economic
development tool, i.e., should tax policy be viewed
only as revenue-generating mechanism or also as a development
tool?

2. Should the tax rate or the tax structure be modified?

3. Should tax abatement policies be firm and/or industry
specific or area specific?

4. Are other business incentives (various type of subsidies)
preferable to tax abatements?

5. Should tax policy attract new industries or favor
existing ones? Should tax policy help declining firms
and/or industries or concentrate on those with possibilities
of expansion?

6. Should revenues from taxes be used primarily to provide
services to businesses or to give various financial
incentives? Should the city push for greater uniformity
in tax burdens across the metropolitan area?

7. Should the city push for greater uniformity
in the tax burdens across the metropolitan area?

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