Quality of Life is Important!

REPORT: QUALITY OF LIFE, NOT JOBS, MOST IMPORTANT IN ATTRACTING NEW RESIDENTS

If Michigan hopes to ward off the "brain drain" of young people and the flight of other prosperous residents, the state should shift its focus from providing tax incentives and job creation to making the state an attractive place to live, concludes a preliminary report from the Land Policy Institute that was unveiled on Wednesday.

The report is due for completion in March but Institute Director Soji Adelaja presented an outline Wednesday to the House New Economy and Quality of Life Committee that said the time of people staying put because of their jobs is past; people are now more mobile and choose their residence based on a state's resources and things to do and then create jobs where they land.

"People who create the most jobs directly and indirectly are also those people moving to those places in the country that have the best amenities and quality of life," Mr. Adelaja said. "They are seeking places first, not jobs first."

He said rather than rely on tax incentives to attract businesses, Michigan policymakers should try to attract educated workers by highlighting existing assets such as "affordable housing, metro areas anchored by a world-class university, a growing green energy sector and great natural beauty."

Governments should especially focus on retaining three groups of people, including: well-educated immigrants, young workers and retirees, the report said.

Michigan's retention rate for each of these groups is below average.

Michigan does poorly in keeping the highest moneymaking age group of 25 to 34-year olds, ranking with states such as North Dakota and Kansas and not among leaders such as Colorado and Georgia, Mr. Adelaja said.

The economic benefits of keeping that group are great, since just a 1 percent increase in young workers adds to the average county 556 people, $84 more dollars in per capita income and 537 more jobs.

A similar increase in the number of retirees creates about 389 jobs, and a 1 percent increase in foreign-born residents translates to 417 jobs, the report found.

The state fares better at keeping seniors, but the growth rate for people age 65 and older in Michigan still lags behind the national rate of nearly 24 percent.

The summary of the report doesn't note how the state measures in attracting educated immigrants, but does find that programs to attract that group seem to benefit urban areas the most and wouldn't necessarily be advantageous to rural areas.

The report repeatedly emphasized that there should be different strategies for rural and urban areas; for example that rural areas would benefit most from so-called "gray infrastructure," improvements on roads and bridges; while "green infrastructure" improvements to trails, recreation areas and parks, for example, will drive population growth especially in urban areas.

Additionally, while retirees increase per capita income and translate to job growth in urban areas, they raise per capita income at a lower rate in rural areas and actually tend to crowd out other age groups, while not increasing the numbers of people in other age groups.

As for spending priorities, the report called money from the stimulus plan "perhaps the greatest opportunity in recent years facing rural and urban communities.

"But what is equally important is how various communities spend this money," the report said. "Surely, expenditure in shovel-ready gray infrastructure will create jobs, but we are doubtful that the effects will be long-lasting or would bring any meaningful change in the transition of rural and urban communities towards the New Economy."

Instead, the report said, communities must each consider their separate assets and take advantage of new opportunities instead of tying themselves down to old industries and attraction mechanisms.

Thanks to Gongwer for this article.