What is economic prosperity and why should our residents care?

Remember any details from your college economics course? Me neither, but I do remember that economics is something that filters up and down through many different paths much like a ripple on water. Economic prosperity, when referring to a community or region, is basically when the economy is thriving, characterized by increasing employment rates, rising GDP, and stable economic growth. The benefits of economic prosperity in a community might be localized but they are also far-reaching, and they have a direct impact on the well-being of residents, our families. Economic prosperity, when mixed with smart community management, is the main driver in a high quality-of-life for all the residents in and around the community. This is why it's essential for local governments to prioritize policies that promote economic growth. Of course, local governments must work within the confines of the state government and the federal government, so solid communication at all these levels can help set up a community for prosperity. Recent examples of this trickle-down cooperation are the American Rescue Plan, which backfilled what could have been otherwise been a national disaster, and the recent CHIPS Act which incentivized high-tech businesses to expand in America. One of the primary benefits of economic prosperity is job creation. As the economy grows, more businesses are established and existing businesses expand, leading to an increase in demand for labor. This translates to job opportunities for residents, who can then earn a living wage and support their families. A strong economy creates an environment that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship, and this attracts talented individuals who can help create new products and services, further driving economic growth. In my own neighborhood, there are folks who work for Google, Apple, Meta, and more and many of these brilliant, highly-paid residents have their own side hustles, patents, ideas that they someday want to expand on, given the right opportunity. Several of our Placer County cities have innovation centers that foster and help startup innovation ideas grow into real businesses. Economic prosperity also leads to increased wages and better working conditions for workers. As businesses compete for labor, they are more likely to offer higher wages and benefits packages to attract and retain the best talent. This not only benefits employees but also leads to increased consumer spending, which further boosts the economy. This consumer spending is where the rest of the community benefits. It's difficult to directly quantify all the soft numbers but the combination of sales tax dollars and property tax dollars can be significant for a local community. These dollars go into a city's General Fund, which is what pays for citywide parks, builds up infrastructure (roads, bridges, and more), extra police officers with the best equipment, paramedic firefighters with enough fire stations spread around to quickly respond to your emergency, connected biking trails, extra road repairs, libraries, aquatic centers, recreation programs, fireworks shows, parking garages for a thriving downtown, arts programs, and much more. High-paying jobs bring highly-skilled workers to the region. These folks ensure that the housing market remains strong since an influx of workers ensures our property values remain solid. Good jobs also buy new vehicles, spend more money at the regional stores, go out to dinner more often, hire gardeners and house cleaners, pay extra for entertainment such as movies, live performances, Top Golf, iFly, skiing and more. These jobs spend money regionally, which helps our local businesses thrive as well as the jobs attached to those local businesses. As mentioned, this money also floods the General Fund of our cities and county, which improves the services and amenities for all of us. Success breeds success. Great businesses attract other great businesses, which improves access to markets and creates more efficient supply chains, thus reducing the cost of goods and services. Additionally, improved infrastructure and amenities creates a more attractive business environment, leading to increased investment and job creation. Our universities feed highly-educated workers into these jobs and we get to retain our local talent as they find local jobs. Hewlett Packard, Intel and Aerojet brought economic prosperity to the Sacramento region in the past. The recent announcement of Bosch coming to Roseville and Solidigm going to Rancho Cordova will rejuvenate this regional prosperity and draw more high-quality businesses and jobs to the region, thus ensuring the national rankings of quality-of-life factors remain high. It is the duty of our elected representatives to team up to ensure our region attracts and retains these quality companies to ensure economic prosperity in our region thrives. Scott Alvord is an award-winning business owner and CEO of Advanced Development Concepts, LLC. He can be reached at www.ADCBiz.com or 916-782-4272.