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Montana economy is fairly
healthy, economist says
By WALT
WILLIAMS, Chronicle Staff
Writer
Forget what you've heard and
read. Much of Montana, it turns out, is doing
pretty well.
"In Montana, we like to think
we're one of the poorest places in the world ...
well, we're not," Larry Swanson, an economist with
the University of Montana, said.
Swanson also is the associate
director of the university's Center for the Rocky
Mountain West, which on Wednesday sponsored a
discussion about Montana's changing economy at the
Museum of the Rockies.
Business leaders and
city and state officials gathered at the museum to
discuss the future of Bozeman's economy in
particular, which at the moment is strong, with a
concentration of fast-growing business-service
industries.
But the city's economy also
reflects the change in the state's economy, which,
according to Swanson, has transformed from one
based on natural resources to one based on human
resources -- the "old economy"/"new economy"
dichotomy.
Take agriculture. Most farmers
and ranchers don't earn enough to cover their
operating costs, and the only way they survive is
through government assistance and income from
second sources.
"Every state is going to solve this
problem, and they never have," Swanson noted with
sarcasm.
Extractive industries like coal
mining and logging have learned to get by with
fewer employees, and overall contribute only a
small percentage to state incomes.
In
Montana, it is the seven largest cities that have
been the drivers of economic growth over the past
decade, Swanson argued.
In Bozeman, for
instance, the fastest-growing industry is business
services, which is comprised of small companies
that provide services like computer technical
assistance and accounting to larger
corporations.
That trend pretty much
reflects the nation as a whole, a result of an
emphasis by large corporations to save money by
downsizing and contracting out work they once did
themselves.
Other service sectors -- like
health care -- also top the list.
In
addition, Montanans suffer from the perception
that theirs is a rural state, Swanson said. But
more than 70 percent of Montanans live within 40
miles of one of the state's seven largest cities,
where, at least in cases like Bozeman, the economy
is thriving.
That transformation seems to
be lost on lawmakers in Helena and the news media,
he said.
Swanson doesn't deny that eastern
Montana in particular is struggling. In an
interview, he suggested state lawmakers need to
give individual regions the flexibity to do what
they feel needs to be done to stimulate their
economies.
Local business leaders had
plenty of suggestions about what Bozeman could do
during a forum after Swanson's
presentation.
They argued government isn't
part of the solution, although some panel members
said there needs to be an emphasis in preserving
what draws people to the city, namely open
space.
"Our company is intertwined with our
Bozeman location," said K.C. Walsh of Simms
Fishing Products, the last manufacturer of waders
in the United States.
They also didn't
think Bozeman or the surrounding cities should be
trying to entice out-of-state companies to set up
shop here, but instead focus on building up
locally owned business.
Part of the reason
was practical: Local businesses don't want to
compete with other companies for employees, Andrew
Field of PrintingForLess.com of Livingston
said.
But he also noted that the area
doesn't have the population to support a large
manufacturing plant, for instance.
Walt
Williams is at
wwilliams@dailychronicle.com
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