Our state should build on its 2004 jobs successes

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums Guest column • : Men must learn duty, honor and responsibility (02/06/05) • Bob Faith: Our state should build on its 2004 jobs successes (02/05/05) • Dr. Carole Letson: Newberry's forensic science program will aid investigations (02/04/05) • Ronald P. Townsend: Privatization not the solution for safer buses (02/03/05) • Earle Oxner: South Carolina can't afford tuition tax credits (02/02/05) More details Bob Faith, a Mount Pleasant real estate executive, was appointed secretary of commerce by Gov. Mark Sanford in January 2003. Faith is founder and leader of Greystar, a real estate conglomerate with investments of more than $1 billion.

And that wasn't the only good news. In 2004, we more than doubled investment in the state over the previous year, to $2.76 billion.

It's easy to point to big numbers and pat ourselves on the back on a job well done. However, a closer look at the details behind the numbers illustrates precisely why our agency is so happy with these results.

If we want to improve our standard of living, it's crucial for our state to ask two questions about the upshot of any economic development efforts to which we devote public resources: What kind of jobs did we attract and how much will those jobs pay?

We are all aware that certain kinds of low-skill jobs have been disappearing in South Carolina due to the increasing wage competitiveness of the rest of the world. That's reality, and while these losses are painful, they are an unambiguous call to action. Our future prosperity absolutely depends on relinquishing our old-fashioned focus on racking up job numbers without concern for whether they were good jobs, or secure jobs, or, most important, well-paying jobs.

So, we improved our strategy, and in 2004, heck, we worked harder than ever to attract jobs that require educated, skilled workers and raise incomes in South Carolina.

A few examples: General Electric Energy's selection of Greenville to be the headquarters of its new Global Gas Turbine Technology Team means the addition of hundreds of advanced manufacturing and engineering jobs in the Upstate. Siemens' choice of Columbia as the home of its Powertrain Diesel System headquarters will bring opportunities for R&D, engineering and testing functions to workers in the Midlands.

These kinds of knowledge-based jobs pay wages well above the average in this state. Vought Aircraft and Alenia North America, the two Boeing suppliers who are establishing a joint venture in North Charleston to integrate composite fuselage sections for Boeing's new Dreamliner passenger jet, will pay their workers an average wage of $50,000. That's in a state where the average wage is just $28,000. Pretty cool, huh?

Overall, the projected average wage for Commerce-assisted job creation in 2004 was $34,773. That's almost a third higher than South Carolina's per capita income and 7 percent higher than for Commerce-assisted projects in 2003.

In addition to jobs, the billions of dollars in investment for these projects serves to upgrade to the state's industrial and technological infrastructure, improving our competitiveness over the long term. It also results in a larger tax base for communities and counties, allowing them to lessen the tax burden on individual taxpayers or develop and improve on local services that can contribute so much to our quality of life.

For our agency to have the best chance at improving our performance this year, we need to start with government restructuring and pro-business reforms, such as those Gov. Mark Sanford has pushed for. Make no mistake about it — lowering the personal income tax has a big impact on business. So does tort reform and workers' compensation reform.

A more business-friendly environment in South Carolina not only would make us more attractive to the most innovative and successful companies throughout the world, but it would make it easier for our small business owners — the largest component of our economy — to expand and hire more workers. There's only so much we as economic developers can do as long as excessive taxes, regulations and other burdens exist as dead weight on the rising ambitions of an entrepreneur who may just be the Bill Gates of biotech, or the Michael Dell of composites.

With the sustained improvement of the domestic economy and the support of Gov. Sanford and the General Assembly, we can build on our momentum in 2005. We at Commerce are continuing our targeted approach to economic development, strengthening our existing industry clusters and growing new ones through more efficient, selective recruiting efforts and better support of our home-grown start-ups.

We will also continue to rely on the invaluable partnership of our local allies, including mayors Knox White and Bill Barnet, and Jerry Howard and Carter Smith at the Greenville area and Spartanburg development corporations. Without their vision, dedication and teamwork, we couldn't begin to achieve the successes that affect the lives of so many in the Upstate and across the state.

This year, as last year, working together, we will aggressively pursue the best methods of creating knowledge-based jobs that pay higher wages for South Carolinians.