The Monroe County Green Party and the Association of Monroe County Taxpayers stand against taxpayer subsidy of the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation.  This statement has also been endorsed by the Monroe County Libertarian Party.

The BEDC, a private organization purporting to work for the economic development of our community, in fact looks out primarily for the interests of its own members. It is absurd that $128,000 of taxpayer money is handed to the BEDC every year.

Make no mistake: this is not a group of average citizens. A voting membership costs $5000 per year. Even a non-voting membership costs $1000.

The BEDC is not representative of Monroe County, nor even of Monroe County businesses. Nearly half of the companies in the BEDC are non-local. These include Union Planters Bank (based in Tennessee), Tasus (based in Japan), and Sam's Club (based in Arkansas).

Also included are automotive and real estate franchises. While the franchisees are local, franchises are non-local businesses in the important sense that a significant portion of the profit is shipped out of Monroe County to corporate headquarters, where it is used to pay executives and stockholders who did not actually contribute in a meaningful way to the fabric of our community.

This is not a complaint against economic development or even against free markets. There is some merit to the claim that free market competition leads to innovation, efficiency improvements, and wealth creation. The benefits of a free market are lost, though, when a small number of people and corporations control so much wealth that they can overwhelm their competitors, not with better products or lower prices, but with advertising, union-busting, environmental shortcuts, patent abuse, and monopoly leverage. The situation is worsened by corporate welfare and the political insitutionalization of groups like the BEDC.

If we wish to improve the lives of all of our citizens, we must distinguish between wealth creation and wealth redistribution. Organizations which produce goods, services, and genuine technological innovation create wealth. Organizations which simply redistribute wealth into overstuffed pockets do not.

The BEDC uses taxpayer funds to develop its members' assets, not to develop Monroe County's economy. Every single property advertised on the BEDC web site belongs to or directly abuts the property of a BEDC member.

Bloomington's residents have fared worse economically since the BEDC was kicked into high gear in 1994. This can be seen by comparing statistics from 1990-1993 and 1994-1998. Growth of our Gross Metropolitan Product did increase in the latter period. However, growth of median existing home prices also increased, and growth of average earnings per job was cut by more than half. The benefits of our economic growth have been concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.

Other communities have economic development corporations which are organized in a far more egalitarian fashion than the BEDC. For example, the Fort Collins Development Corporation in Colorado uses a sliding scale for membership dues. One can qualify for membership in that organization for as little as $100. Furthermore, it takes no tax dollars and its membership base is far larger and more diverse than that of the BEDC.

If the City of Bloomington and Monroe County wish to spend taxpayer money on economic development, it should be done through the Bloomington Economic Development COMMISSION and the Monroe County Economic Development COMMISSION, not the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation. These Commissions are local government bodies, appointed by our elected officials and bound to work for the benefit of all our citizens, not just their own members.