Rethinking economic and community development.

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INTRODUCTION

"Among many things the recessionary period emphasized is the tension caused by economic development within jurisdictions," David MacGillivray wrote in "Enhancing the Finance Officer's Role in Economic Development" (in this issue of Government Finance Review). As the person who best understands the organization's fiscal resources and commitments, the finance officer is an extremely important and valuable part of any discussion about economic development. Finance officers, who are charged with ensuring the organization's financial strength, now and in the future, also realize that the local economy must thrive if the jurisdiction is to thrive. As MacGillivray wrote, "a public entity must be financially solid both internally and within its constituent community." All this means that the finance officer should have a strong role in a government's economic development planning.

Finance officers can be particularly helpful in watching over the difference between the money that municipalities spend to accommodate new growth and the amount that they get back in the form of property taxes from the developments that they approve. Peter Katz, author of "The Missing Metric," helped conduct a tax revenue study several years ago in Sarasota...