Chamber wants to increase per capita income

By John Boyanoski  

JANUARY 20, 2010 1:51 p.m. (0)

Greenville Chamber of Commerce leaders unveiled a $4 million campaign Wednesday morning aimed at adding 15,000 jobs in the next five years to help reverse a trend of stagnating income for county residents.

The plan, dubbed Accelerate, calls for strengthening the business climate through investment and legislation; generating high impact start-ups and developing the region’s talent pool.

About $1.5 million of the $4 million has been raised. The money will be used to help increase recruiting, marketing the need for better education and provide full-time staff for groups such as NEXT and Clemson’s Advanced Materials Research Center.

Chamber leaders first addressed the problems with per capita income about four years ago, and a series of studies were done looking at the problem. However, this is the first targeted approach to dealing with the issue, said John Moore, the Chamber’s executive vice president.

“We should have been doing this five years ago,” he said.

While it is not the only measure of economic success, per capita income is considered one of the leading indicators of a region’s business health. Greenville’s per capita income is rising, but at a slower rate than the rest of the nation.

The gap between the national average and the Greenville average has been widening for an unprecedented nine years in a row so that it is now at 91 percent, which is where the county was in 1986.

Moore said they are seeking the support of the business community because one entity can not do it alone.

A little more than 120 area business leaders packed into the main ballroom at the Poinsett Club downtown to hear the presentation, which tried to mix in optimism with the dire message.

A video with a dance-music heavy score showed scenes of a vibrant Greenville with voiceovers from people such as Mayor Knox White and business leader Merl Code, but then switched to black-and-white imagery and a more ambient music style when discussing the per-capita income issue.

The program was designed after Chamber staff talked to more than 60 area economic leaders in the past 12 months to gauge what could be done and how much it would cost.

One of the key things will be evaluating results, Moore said.

The 15,000 new jobs signify a 10 percent increase over normal job growth and could pump in close to $1.4 billion into the economy each year. That will help the community across the board, but he cautioned the problem would not be solved overnight.

It took 20 years of solid growth for Greenville to reach 101 percent of the national per capita income average, and it will take time to get that number back.

Other goals include creating an Upstate grassroots network of 500 businesses and 7,500 people, lowering the 23 percent office vacancy rate, increasing the number of college graduates from 25 to 28 percent, increasing the number of schools in the Carolina First Center for Excellence from 37 to 62 and increase the employees at high-impact start-ups from 600 to 1,500.

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