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Town Hall Calls for Strong Rural Economies that Sustain and Attract Businesses

Citizens also want new industries evaluated for environmental impact

Education identified as critical to economic development

Ruidoso, NM, April 4, 2008 --New Mexicans want the state’s rural communities to remain vibrant and viable, recognizing the importance of sustaining existing businesses, attracting new ones, and providing sound educations for the next generation of young people. They also want economic development that is environmentally responsible. These recommendations and others resulted from a New Mexico First statewide town hall attended by 160 people and held in Ruidoso March 27-29. The town hall produced a total of 18 recommendations, each reflecting the consensus of the participants.

The event, titled “Business as UNusual: A Town Hall on Rural-Urban Economic Development” brought together a wide range of citizens from 27 New Mexico communities. They came from small, medium, and large towns representing business, education, agriculture, environment, youth, and government interests.

“We had a fantastic group of committed citizens at the town hall,” said Heather Balas, president of New Mexico First. “They recognized that rural and tribal communities are at risk because young people are moving away and economies are slowing. They called for concrete actions from businesses, the state, and local communities to strengthen and sustain our small towns.”

In addition to the business attraction, education, and environmental recommendations described previously, the town hall called for:

• Regional, public/private partnerships on broad issues such as workforce, transportation, energy, water, and broadband
• Collection of localized data on demographics, jobs, and labor supply so that communities can development effective economic development plans
• Reforming the state’s regulation and tax codes to become more business-friendly
• Development of local marketing strategies to sustain and attract businesses to communities
• Economic development experts to advise communities as they develop and implement local plans
• Preservation of arts, culture, and history within communities

The town hall recommendations will be advocated to state and local leaders by an Implementation Team comprised of volunteers from the event. The team will be chaired by long-time economic developer Linda Kay Jones of Silver City. “The town hall participants recognized that any new growth should be considered in light of the existing  industries and character of a community,” said Jones. “They also wanted towns and regions to bring their residents together to develop thoughtful, data-informed plans on how to improve their communities and economies.”