Missoula business leaders: State must preserve economic development program

Local recipients of Big Sky Economic Development Trust Fund grants in Missoula have been wide ranging over the past few years, from an upstart home manufacturing firm to a film studio, both of which used the funding to create new jobs.

But the economic development program administered by the Montana Department of Commerce may become the latest in a growing list of services to face the chopping block as the state tightens the reigns on fiscal spending.

And that could place Missoula and much of Montana at a disadvantage when it comes to economic development.

By Martin Kidston

https://www.missoulacurrent.com/business/2018/03/missoula-economic-development/