News

Center calls for $1 billion bond referendum to help meet $16.6 billion in water and sewer needs statewide
The Rural Center announced last week that it would work to put a $1 billion bond referendum before North Carolina voters in response to a documented $16.6 billion capital need on water, sewer and stormwater infrastructure. The announcement came Feb. 23 as the center brought together more than 200 of the state’s leading water resource professionals and policy experts at a conference that capped the center’s Water 2030 Initiative, a three-year project designed to arm state leaders with information essential to protecting the environment, preserving quality of life and spurring job growth in North Carolina. The conference featured the release of four reports that detail the impact of the 1998 Clean Water Bonds, track state infrastructure investments from 1994 to 2005, examine new infrastructure data from a recent water and wastewater inventory, and present a state water budget with supply and demand projections through 2030. Those reports are now available on the center’s website. A panel of speakers that included state Sen. John Kerr and Reps. Pryor Gibson and Bill Owens detailed how North Carolina’s booming population and aging water and sewer systems, coupled with stricter environmental regulations and cuts in federal grant programs, will threaten prosperity in cities, towns and communities across the state in years to come, particularly in rural and distressed areas. In addition to infrastructure bonds, center President Billy Ray Hall said the state should create a permanent revenue source for water, sewer and stormwater improvements. For a summary of the Water 2030 Initiative findings, click here. For more information on the initiative, contact project director Jean Crews-Klein at (919) 250-4314.

Rural Center and partners to hold state’s first Entrepreneurship Policy Summit April 19
More than 350 state leaders and public policy experts will come together in Chapel Hill April 19 for North Carolina’s first-ever policy summit on entrepreneurship. There, they will examine the critical role of entrepreneurship in state and local economies, discuss how the state can more fully invest in entrepreneurship as a viable economic development strategy, and set a course to strengthen the foundational system that underpins entrepreneurship on the state and local level. A panel of entrepreneurs will share their personal accounts of struggle, sacrifice and the road to success. The summit will conclude with a call to action as the state’s foremost experts on entrepreneurship lead others in forming work groups that will meet over the next year to further develop and refine strategies and recommendations for boosting entrepreneurship in North Carolina. The event is hosted by the Rural Entrepreneurship Development System Project – a Rural Center-led team working to create a comprehensive entrepreneurship development system to serve rural and minority entrepreneurs in low-wealth areas of the state – as well as the N.C. Business Resource Alliance and the N.C. Entrepreneurial Association. Funding for the event is provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and North Carolina’s Touchstone Energy Cooperatives. Other sponsorships are still available. Registration for the summit is $100, which includes lunch. The event will be held at the Friday Center just off Highway 54 East. Click here for directions. Further details on the summit and registration information will be available on the Rural Center’s website in early March. For more information, contact Leslie Scott or Michelle Hall at the Rural Center at (919) 250-4314.

Twenty-two North Carolina counties see change in the state ranking that determines economic incentives
The N.C. Department of Commerce last month released its annual county tier designations, the system used by state lawmakers and policy leaders to gauge a county’s level of economic distress. The tier rankings are important because they determine the type and amount of state-funded incentives counties will receive for each new job created that year. The five economic distress tier levels – with 1 representing the most distressed counties and 5 the least – are determined through a statutory formula that was tweaked somewhat this year. Twenty-two counties will see a change in the economic incentives they receive throughout 2006. Bladen, Caldwell, Caswell, Mitchell, Rutherford and Swain all moved from Tier 2 to Tier 1. Montgomery and Greene moved from Tier 3 to Tier 2; Camden, Clay and Wilson moved from Tier 3 to Tier 1; and Wilkes County moved from Tier 4 to Tier 3. Alexander, Anson, Burke, Cabarrus, Haywood, Catawba, Jackson, Wayne, Yadkin and Yancey will receive fewer incentives this year as they move up to a less distressed ranking. The statutory formula that determines the rankings is based upon a county’s average unemployment, per capita income and population growth. A company locating in a Tier I county could receive a $12,500 tax credit for every new job created, compared to $500 for each job created in a Tier 5 county. To see the 2006 Tier Designation List, visit the N.C Department of Commerce's website.

North Carolina’s Triad to receive $15 million to train workers in region hit by layoffs in furniture, textiles
North Carolina's Triad is set to receive $15 million in federal aid to help overcome a major loss of jobs and industry in a region that has been hard-hit by manufacturing layoffs, particularly in furniture and textiles. The private-public Piedmont Triad Partnership made good on its mission to raise money for worker training in the region, which will receive $850,000 along with $5 million a year for three years from the U.S. Department of Labor. The majority of the funding will be used to boost community college training programs that prepare workers for jobs in growth industries, including logistics, health care, finance and insurance. North Carolina was one of 14 states to receive part of a $195 million federal appropriation for workforce development last month.

Reports and Research

UNC School of Government releases report on the challenges posed by decentralized wastewater treatment facilities
In its most recent issue of its Popular Government magazine, the UNC School of Government outlines the challenges inherent in operating, managing and funding on-site wastewater treatment systems. The article, “Government Financing for On-site Wastewater Treatment Facilities in North Carolina,” examines local and regional funding initiatives as well as strategies for better management of these facilities. According to the authors, the number of on-site wastewater treatment facilities has remained fairly constant over the last five years at between 34,000 to 40,000. And surprisingly, these facilities are nearly as common in urban areas of the state as they are in rural areas. In fact, Wake County had the second highest number of permits issued for on-site systems in 2003. To read the full article, click here.

Report: Women in business for themselves, by themselves, doing better than other firms without employees
A new report by the Center for Women's Business Research estimates that women-owned firms without employees are increasing in number and revenues faster than all U.S. firms without employees. Between 1997 and 2004, women-owned non-employer firms grew by 18 percent – twice the national rate for all non-employer firms. Center data reveals that during the same time period, revenues for women-owned firms without employees grew 66 percent, compared to 42 percent for all firms without employees. In its report, “Women-Owned Firms Doing Business Without Employees: A Growing Economic Force,” center chairwoman Marjorie Alfus writes that contrary to common perceptions, most U.S. businesses operate without employees and women- and men-owned firms are very similar in this respect. In fact, 75 percent of all firms do not have employees and 81 percent of women-owned firms also are without employees. Alfus says that the 5.4 million majority women-owned firms without employees make a significant contribution to the economy, generating $167 billion in sales annually. North Carolina was ranked tenth among states where majority women-owned firms without employees have a strong presence. Others in the top 10 include: California; Florida; New York and Texas (tied); Illinois; Michigan; Ohio; New Jersey; and Pennsylvania. To read the full report, click here.

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Meetings and Events

Navigating the Global American South Conference to be held March 2-3 in Chapel Hill
UNC will host a major interdisciplinary conference March 2-3 that will explore the changing nature of the Southern United States. The University Center for International Studies is hosting the Navigating the Global American South Conference in collaboration with the Center for the American South. The event, which will be held at the Friday Center in Chapel Hill, will explore the economic, political, cultural and social challenges and opportunities the Southern United States faces in the midst of globalization. The event will feature more than 70 panel presentations and roundtables covering topics ranging from civic and corporate responses to global dynamics in the region; economic adjustments to regional/international markets; Southern identity in a global context; educational adaptation and healthcare innovation; migrant and labor mobility; and technology and its role in rural/urban development and global competitiveness. The registration fee is $60, $25 for students, and includes meals. To find out more or to register, click here.

UNC School of Government to hold training for small town leaders March 10
Elected officials from small towns with fewer than 5,000 residents will have a unique opportunity to learn how to lead successful economic development efforts in their communities at a one-day training offered through the UNC School of Government in Chapel Hill. The March 10 training will be held in partnership with the Rural Center, which is providing 100 scholarships through its Small Towns Initiative. Scholarships will be awarded first to applicants from communities participating in the initiative’s North Carolina Small Towns Economic Prosperity (NC STEP) demonstration program and then to applicants from other small towns on a first come, first served basis. Applicants will be notified by February 28 if they have been accepted into the workshop, which will provide practical information on the most promising economic development strategies for small communities, including case studies of small towns that have been successful in pursuing these strategies. Topics to be covered in the training include: fostering entrepreneurship in small towns; main street/downtown revitalization; asset-based tourism; and building community capacity for development. For more information, contact Beverly Howarth at the School of Government at (919) 966-4171. To register online click here.

NCETA to hold annual workforce training conference April 5-7 in Atlantic Beach
The N.C. Employment and Training Association will hold its annual conference for workforce development and training professionals April 5-7 in Atlantic Beach. The two-day event will feature workshops on topics including the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), statewide trends in economic development, JobLink system updates, making the shift to business-focused customer service and workforce training strategies for youth and older adults. The cost to register is $175 for NCETA members; $195 for non-members. Conference attendees may be able to cover registration fees through WIA funds. For more information, visit their website.To register online, click here.

Council for Entrepreneurial Development to hold annual venture conference in Pinehurst May 2-3
The Southeast’s leading venture conference will be held again this year in Pinehurst at the Pinehurst Resort May 2-3. The Council for Entrepreneurial Development’s 23rd annual event will feature hundreds of leading national investors and the best of the region's growth companies. The annual conference provides entrepreneurs with a chance to present their investment opportunities to early and main-stage technology development companies. Since 1999, companies who presented at CED's annual conference have raised more than $1.6 billion in venture capital. Approximately 25-35 companies will be selected to present to an audience that will include more than 300 expected investors. To find out more or to register, visit their website.

At the Rural Center

Rural Center gears up for 18th annual Rural Economic Development Institute
The center’s Rural Economic Development Institute will accept applications for its 2006 leadership program through March 3. The institute is a valuable resource for helping rural leaders grow their leadership skills in order to meet the economic development challenges in their communities. There are 30 available slots for the next institute, which consists of nine days of classes over a three-month period. Tuition is $495, with a limited number of scholarships available. The meeting dates for the 2006 institute are April 5-7, May 3-5 and May 31-June 2. For more information or to apply, contact Carol Torian at the Rural Center, (919) 250-4314.

Center-led team to host another community-based entrepreneurship workshop in Sparta on March 31
A series of community-based entrepreneurship workshops held this fall and led by the Rural Center and the Institute for Rural Entrepreneurship were such a success that stakeholders are holding another workshop in Sparta on March 31. The “Opening the Door to Rural Entrepreneurship,” workshop will help engage rural community and policy leaders in understanding and supporting their local entrepreneurs and to work with rural business service providers in building support networks capable of growing, nurturing and sustaining entrepreneurs. The meeting will be held at the Blue Ridge Business Development Center. The workshops are being offered by a Rural Center-led team working to create a comprehensive entrepreneurship development system to serve rural and minority entrepreneurs in low-wealth areas of the state. The team conducted three of these workshops, which are an integral part of the project’s outreach efforts, in eastern and western North Carolina in October and November. To find out more, contact Michelle Hall at the Rural Center at (919) 250-4314.

Funding Sources

Entrepreneurial Incubator grants program gears up with March 24th informational workshop in Raleigh and Hickory
A grants program that offers ‘bricks and mortar’ funding to help get entrepreneurial incubators up and running in small cities and towns is gearing up for its second year. Offered through the N.C. Department of Commerce’s Small Cities Community Development Block Grant Program, the grants will give local governments and their partners an opportunity to secure up to $350,000 in funds for the construction or expansion of entrepreneurial incubator facilities. Such facilities help entrepreneurial start-ups survive in the business’s early days and improve its chances of long-term success. The Rural Center and the N.C. Department of Commerce will hold an informational workshop on March 24 in Raleigh at the Rural Center and in Hickory at Catawba Valley Community College’s Hickory Metro Higher Educational Center. The workshop, which will be linked by video teleconference, will offer details on grant guidelines, eligibility and the application process. Interested applicants will submit preliminary applications by May 19, with grants awards to be announced in August. Workshop space is limited and a reservation is required. Contact Leslie Scott at (919) 250-4314 to reserve a seat or for questions about the grant program. For questions concerning applicant eligibility, rules and other matters, contact George Sherrill at (919)715-6559.

Grants of $5,000 available to help schools with high percentage of poor, minority students build better student, adult relations
The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) is now accepting applications for the MetLife Foundation Bridge Builders Grant Program, a funding initiative for public middle and high schools serving large numbers of low-income students and minorities. Twenty-five recipients will receive grants of $5,000 to implement an initiative aimed at building better relationships among adults and students. From that pool of 25, NASSP will select five exemplary awardees to participate in a panel presentation at the 2008 NASSP Convention in San Antonio, Texas. Projects awarded grants will seek to implement recommendations stemming from two publications, "Transitions and the Role of Supportive Relationships, the 2004-2005 MetLife Survey of the American Teacher," and "Sent to the Principal: Students Talk About Making High School Better." Both publications point to the lack of support and trust between students and their principals, and both recommend building better relationships among adults and students as a tool to improve student academic performance and social outcomes. To find out more, or to register, visit their website .

From the N.C. Press

Raleigh News and Observer: North Carolina’s tax structure under the microscope at annual economic forum
As North Carolina considers modernizing its tax system, it should cut taxes on corporations and the wealthy in an effort to attract more jobs to the state, several political figures and economists said Monday (February 6). Speakers ranging from former Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes to Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson voiced support for business tax cuts at the annual Emerging Issues Forum at N.C. State University. "To be blunt, your state income tax is too high," said Forbes, a magazine publisher. "You have the highest marginal rate in the Southeast." The forum, organized each of the last 20 years by former Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt, is this year focusing on an effort to modernize the state's 1930's-era tax system, which economists say North Carolina has outgrown. The forum drew about 800 people. The forum heard a wide variety of views from the desirability of expanding what transactions are covered by the sales tax to the need for the state to provide relief to counties by taking over the funding for Medicaid. But a theme running through the two-day conference was the need to reduce North Carolina's corporate tax rate and its highest marginal income tax rate. The corporate tax rate is 6.9 percent, the highest in the Southeast. The state income tax rate ranges from 6 percent to 8.25 percent. North Carolina, overall, ranks 28th in the country in state/local tax burden with lower taxes than such Southern states as Arkansas, West Virginia, Louisiana and Kentucky, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Washington that monitors tax trends.

The North Carolina Associated Press: Labor costs a growing concern for tobacco farmers
The increasing cost for immigrant field workers was the top concern of tobacco growers attending an otherwise upbeat annual meeting of the state's tobacco growers Friday. The topic of the trade group's annual meeting was survival in a post-buyout tobacco market, but the prevailing attitude was that the worst had come and better days were ahead. Banks and financial planners pitched their services to growers flush with new income streams, while tobacco seed salesmen said their sales suggested a big jump in production this year. Some growers have taken payments from cigarette makers and a federal buyout, paid off debts, and retired. Others have seen opportunity and expanded. "Fewer growers will be around, but they will grow more pounds on more acreage," said Sam Crews, the group's outgoing president, who farms about 150 acres of tobacco near Oxford in Granville County. North Carolina tobacco farmers last fall divided nearly $400 million in the first of 10 annual installments from the federal government's $9.6 billion buyout ending the Depression-era system of tobacco price supports and quotas. Starting last year, farmers were allowed to sell as much of the leaf as they could grow at whatever price they could fetch to whomever would buy it. The average price for flue-cured tobacco—the type which makes North Carolina the country's largest producer—was a better-than-expected $1.55 to $1.60 a pound under contracts with cigarette makers, North Carolina State University agricultural economist Blake Brown said. Production is expected to increase by about a third this year, he said.

Winston-Salem Journal: Campaign to ban tobacco products at schools a touchy subject in Yadkin
A statewide campaign to ban tobacco products on school grounds has become a touchy topic in Yadkin County, where tobacco is more than a habit. For generations, tobacco farming in the county has been an economic mainstay and a way of life. That hasn't stopped some officials from urging the board of education to adopt a complete ban of all tobacco products on school property. Under the school system's current policy, the use of tobacco is prohibited inside school buildings and by students at all times. Teachers and adult visitors may use tobacco on school grounds, as long as they are outdoors. If the board of education adopts a policy proposed last year by the county's board of health, the ban will be extended to cover all tobacco use—anywhere, in any form, by anyone. Karin Mendenhall, the chairwoman of the board, said she doesn't know when members will take up the issue. Mendenhall and Superintendent Barbara Todd said they support the ban in principle, but they recognize the cultural significance of tobacco and stress that change must come slowly.

Raleigh News and Observer: N.C. China Center to open this month
China may get the rap for taking textile and furniture jobs away from North Carolina, but the communist nation also spends a lot of money here. Next month, the N.C. China Center will open, further boosting China's presence, they said. The center will open Feb. 18 at the headquarters of Longistics, a Raleigh-based company that operates a foreign-trade zone near Raleigh-Durham International Airport. It will promote economic, cultural and educational exchanges between North Carolina and China. "It's critical for us to have a China center," said Peter Cunningham, international trade director of the state Department of Commerce. "China is a fast-growing, emerging market for North Carolina. The numbers are proof." While often criticized for its role in reaping outsourced American jobs and for undervaluing its currency, China has also had a positive impact here, state officials said. Cunningham notes the significance of Chinese PC-maker Lenovo's recent purchase of the PC division of IBM, which kept about 1,800 jobs in the Triangle.

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The mission of the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center is to develop, promote, and implement sound economic strategies that improve the quality of life of rural North Carolinians, with a special focus on individuals with low to moderate incomes and communities with limited resources.

N.C. Rural Economic Development Center
Michelle Taylor, UPDATE editor
Courtney Kilpatrick, UPDATE production manager
Elaine Matthews, vice president for communications and development
4021 Carya Drive, Raleigh, NC 27610
(919) 250-4314 Fax: (919) 250-4325
www.ncruralcenter.org