1. Economic Development
Our Goal: A prosperous region committed
to improving the quality of life for all
citizens through the creation and strengthening
of local businesses and through the recruitment
and retention of more and larger responsible
businesses that bring diverse, good-paying
employment opportunities.
Recommended Strategy: Create a regional
economic development authority to plan and
strategize for industrial recruitment,
commercial/retail development and tourism
attraction in the five-county region.
Recommended Action to Begin Implementing the
Strategy: Facilitate the formation of an
economic development authority truly
representative of the five-county region.
Return Expected for Our Region: Continued
growth, prosperity and an improved quality of
life for the region, benefiting every citizen,
businesses and visitors.
Other Strategies to Accomplish Our Goal:
Encourage local governments of the region to
provide for strong infrastructure to support the
region's quality of life standards and to
attract quality business and industrial
opportunities.
Create an atmosphere that will bring business
into the community through tax incentives for
industrial development.
Coordinate economic development efforts to
support the tourism/attractions industry.
Seek legislative action to promote clean
industry in the region
2. Jobs, Labor Force, Minority and Small
Business
Our Goal: A region that provides support
for quality economic development, job
opportunities and training.
Recommended Strategy: Form a citizen task
force in each county/council district (with a
central board of representatives) under the
umbrella of local government, and with the local
chambers of commerce as lead agencies, to
support the goal politically, financially and
educationally and to obtain adequate funding.
Recommended Action to Begin Implementing the
Strategy: Fund the strategy and identify
representatives from all areas to serve on the
task force. Find a model program to present to
the group, such as in Hampton Roads, Va. Develop
a "rollout" strategy for the task force to build
community consensus and determine the
stakeholders.
Return Expected for Our Region:
Collaboration; balance/opportunity; economic
growth; enhanced diversity image, benefiting
citizens of the entire region, especially youth
and students.
Other Strategies to Accomplish Our Goal:
Instill public school
students with effective basic skills in reading,
math, science and critical reasoning and obtain
adequate funding for schools.
Provide an educational course for entrepreneurs
on small business development, record keeping
and personnel and personal management in order
to accelerate investments for small businesses
in the region and to obtain adequate funding.
3. Financing Public Services
Our Goal: A region committed to creating
a stable, equitable local and state tax
structure, which will raise per pupil
expenditures for K-12 public schools to the
national average and insure excellence in
teaching and learning, and will provide for
quality public services. This will be done by
providing an appropriate tax structure, such as,
but not limited to raising property taxes and
decreasing sales taxes.
Recommended Strategy: Convene state and
county government representatives to work
together to develop new sources or improve
existing sources of funding for education and
all public services by reforming taxes. Consider
raising property taxes on the local levels if
unable to win the state effort. Note: Grocery
tax cannot be removed currently at the county
level. The Alabama Legislature is the only
governmental body that can remove it at this
time.
Recommended Action to Begin Implementing the
Strategy: Create a task force to research
the costs and benefits of different options, to
conduct polling/focus groups to see what "sells"
and to revise the strategy, to take the message
to the people in small group settings, to bring
public officials from both political parties on
board strategically in a bipartisan way and to
conduct a public information campaign through
the media.
Return Expected to Our Region: Better
quality of life through better public education,
an educated work force to bring higher paying
jobs; lower crime rates; better healthcare,
benefiting everyone in the five-county region.
Other Strategies to Accomplish Our Goal:
Develop a stable source of funding for youth
education and activities.
Establish equitable and adequate funding of
education by government, business and citizens
of the region to develop a prepared work force.
Initiate a regional organization of elected
officials to communicate and to work together to
improve the quality of life.
Conduct a public information campaign through
the media to clarify the inequities in the
current tax system.
Establish a statewide property tax for
education, over and above the Education Trust
Fund funding.
Request that boards of education in the region
petition their county commissioners to hold a
referendum asking citizens to vote for an
increase in property tax for schools.
Convene state and county government
representatives to work together and develop new
or improve existing sources of funding for
education.
4. Structure of Government/Regional
Cooperation
Our Goal: A region where local
governments work in mutual respect and
cooperation to maximize their services, their
images, their communities and economic
development opportunities, and minimize costs
while improving the quality of life for all
through better communication and planning
Recommended Strategy: Strengthen the
River Region concept with the chambers of
commerce and economic development agencies in
Autauga, Elmore and Montgomery counties, and
broaden this regional approach to include the
chambers of commerce and economic development
agencies in Macon and Lowndes counties.
Recommended Action to Begin Implementing the
Strategy: Contact mayors, council members,
and county commissioners of each jurisdiction in
the region. Contact the League of Municipalities
possibly host these meetings. Assist in
encouraging this expanded development; bring
together the chambers of commerce and economic
development agencies.
Return Expected for Our Region:
Inter-government communication and cooperation,
benefiting all the citizens in the five-county
region.
Other Strategies to Accomplish Our Goal:
Initiate a regional organization of elected
officials in Autauga, Elmore, Lowndes, Macon and
Montgomery counties to foster regional
government cooperation and planning with each
community's representatives working toward
agreed upon goals to improve the quality of life
for all citizens.
Convene a roundtable discussion twice a year
between the chambers of commerce, economic
development agencies and governmental officials
from the five-county region.
5. Citizen Involvement/Government Leadership
Our Goal: A region with a system of
governance that promotes citizen input and that
is structured to respond to citizen issues.
Recommended Strategy: County and city
governments should foster development of
neighborhood associations, employing community
development techniques to train and organize
citizens to participate effectively to be able
to bring forth the needs of their communities in
regard to issues about which all citizens have
voiced concern. Develop bylaws for the
associations that will successfully work
region-wide. Review on a regular basis the
strategies of the neighborhood organizations and
the policies or procedures implemented as a
result of each organization's participation.
Recommended Action to Begin Implementing the
Strategy: Convene governmental bodies to
begin the commission process to work with
Envision 2020 to identify key influencers in the
region in order to create a commission, complete
with by-laws, to address the composition of the
commission, length of service, duties and
powers. Duties will include:
a) provide copies of government rules/policies
to a wide variety of citizen groups/neighborhood
associations; also have the community conduct a
"citizen review" of the region's policies and
plans that effect provision of services;
b) provide recommendations from
citizens/neighborhood organizations to
appropriate governing bodies and be advocates
for citizen's recommendation;
c) cooperatively assist/enhance public
health/social service agencies target more
effectively their communications to citizens who
can benefit from the services and programs
offered by each agency.
Return Expected for Our Region: Greater
citizen participation; greater support of local
and regional government, benefiting citizens,
elected officials, government and social service
agencies, businesses and non-profit
organizations.
Another Strategy to Accomplish Our Goal:
Improve communication between the government and
citizens regarding activities and policies of
the government by appointing a commission that
includes community representatives comprised of
individuals in all media by 2002.
