PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

There is a “jobs issue?” On the part of political leaders, it is a recognition that having a job is the key to many public policy questions.

I have written about this before, in two ways:

1. Politicians often belittle the idea of creating or saving jobs and it remains a puzzle to me as I believe that creating or savings jobs is critical for the health of any city, county or state – and for entire country, for that matter.
2. And, recently, some of these same political figures have criticized efforts by cities, counties and state to entice Amazon’s second HQ decision, which eventually went to the East Coast near New York. And, those political figures often don’t even recognize the jobs that would be created – in this case, 50,000 jobs – the taxes those job holders would pay.

The most recent example of this intentional oversight occurred this weekend with publication of piece by a resident of the University of Texas “Ivory Tower” for professors who have nothing to do but criticize some else’s work.

The story appeared under this headline:

The Amazon HQ2 Fiasco Was No Outlier

There’s little evidence that the economic-development incentives offered by cities and states work—except for letting politicians crow

The author wrote this:

“This (his own study) points to the open secret of economic development: Though incentives are rarely effective in changing firms’ investment decisions, they do allow politicians to attend ribbon-cutting ceremonies where they can highlight their own role in attracting a new company (or retaining an old one) and creating jobs.”

Throughout the author’s long piece, there was not one mention of the jobs that Amazon has pledged to create. And, of course, without that mention, there also was no mention of the taxes those job holders would pay – taxes that would support a variety of services, including education and public safety.

Economic development is always a controversial government program and I know whereof I speak dating to my tenure as deputy director of Oregon’s Economic Development Department, now called Business Oregon.

So, call me biased. I am.

Many in government believe the private sector should be left to its own devices in creating or saving jobs. Do so or don’t – we don’t care. Just, at the same time, contend with all government regulatios.

But, as prevalent as that proposition is – government should not be involved in economic development — the main posit of this blog is that any analysis of economic development programs ought to be full-throated and complete.

Count the jobs that are to be created or saved.