In the 2013 State Budget Act, the State of North Carolina voted to defund North Carolina’s regional economic development partnership and to dissolve the four “rural” public partnerships, including the NC Eastern Region, Advantage West, the Southeast Regional Economic Development Partnership, and the … Read more

It can be hard being a water utility when nobody needs you. Or worse yet, when you have to push people away. But the news seems rife with such stories of unrequited demand for service from water utilities that invested so much in the relationship, the infrastructure, now only to be left kind of empt … Read more

On April 17, 2014 a webinar was held by UNC School of Government, the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) and the NC Community Transformation Grant (CTG) on food councils. Community and regional food councils (sometimes called food policy councils) are rapidly emerging as important mecha … Read more

Recent state and federal-level budget talks often stress that public funding is insufficient to adequately address pressing social issues that prevent capable citizens from fully participating in our economy. However, an emergent, long-term approach to financing social and health service delivery is … Read more

North Carolina local governments have a new partner in their economic development efforts. Session Law 2014-18 authorizes the North Carolina Department of Commerce to enter into a contract with a nonprofit entity in order to carry out many of the Department’s economic development recruiting and mark … Read more

North Carolina recently received attention in Tom Ashbrook’s On Point segment discussing “innovation districts”. In this episode Bruce Katz, vice president at Brookings, references the Research Triangle Park’s Master Plan when describing this newly-coined approach to endogenous economic development. … Read more

Many government-owned wastewater systems in the United States are enterprise funds.  That is, they are business-like units within the overall government that should be self-sustaining, taking their revenue from the rates and fees charged to wastewater customers rather than from taxes.  Ideally, wast … Read more

The town of Renewville wants to improve the look of its downtown Main Street, which is pocked with poorly-maintained commercial buildings. The Mayor has had his eye on a few key properties on Main Street, which, if redeveloped, would transform the look and feel of downtown, perhaps spurring addition … Read more

This post is a follow-up to a webinar held April 17, 2014 on community food councils. A question was posed during the webinar: What is the relationship between food councils and food hubs? This post addresses that question. Food hubs have gained a lot of attention in recent years. Responding to this … Read more

  A short piece by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) adds to a growing number of calls for state and local governments to significantly limit their use of business incentives for economic development such as tax breaks, cash grants, and the like.  The CFR “Policy Innovation Memo” is titled … Read more