Montana’s communities should be working together to bolster area’s future

Recently, a delegation of officials from the Great Falls International Airport met with Montana’s congressional delegation during a trip to Washington, D.C., to encourage their support to move the Havre Sector Headquarters of the U.S. Border Patrol from Havre to Great Falls.

Although this effort is not supported by the Cascade County Commission, city of Great Falls, Great Falls Development Authority, Great Falls Chamber of Commerce, Sweetgrass Development Corp. or the Committee of 80, it is disturbing that officials from the Great Falls airport believe that economic development for one community should come at the expense of another community.

This parochial, cannibalistic approach to job creation is universally rejected by economic development practitioners as a zero-sum game that simply "rearranges the chess pieces" in a way that moves jobs from one community to another.

This archaic approach to job creation is considered so damaging that state and federal agencies engaged in economic development funding prohibit its practice with public funds.

By PAUL TUSS And DEBBIE VANDEBERG

Full Story: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070716/OPINION/707160304/1014