From the round table: Power Lunch serves up optimistic outlook on Columbia’s economy

A fortnight ago, the Columbia Business Times hosted the first of a series of “Power Lunches” designed to explore significant local issues of interest to the business community.

Set on the ninth floor of the Tiger Hotel with the carpet of Columbia laid out before us, we couldn’t have found a more fitting inaugural topic than banker Jeff MacLellan’s graphic review of the area’s economic health.

Now the head of the Landrum Companies, the holding company that owns Columbia’s First National Bank, MacLellan has been tracking various parameters of the local economy for more than 20 years. This statistical labor of love keeps us apprised about how well we are doing.

Summing it all up, Greater Columbia is not as bad off economically as most other areas of the country, but this is not a time to be complacent. MacLellan estimates that Columbia’s population now is just north of 96,000, which probably means the city will cross the hundred-grand mark by the time the federal enumerators make their rounds for the decennial census two years from now.

Despite the well-publicized decline in the number of industrial and factory jobs, total employment in the Columbia area continues to grow. The transition from relatively well-paid industrial positions to specialized research-oriented opportunities in medicine and the life sciences is expected to provide some counteraction to the increase in less lucrative positions in various service fields.

Of course, the area’s economic sore spot is the real estate market. While we all know the region is surfeited with excess housing and vacant commercial buildings, the burning question remains: How long will it take for the “workout” to occur? Although some may be in denial about the economic impact of the construction industry, those who build and develop both commercial and residential properties are among the five largest engines of the area’s economy.

Among those in attendance at the Power Lunch was Columbia City Manager Bill Watkins, who just a few days later was a guest on KFRU’s “Columbia Business Times Sunday Morning Roundtable.” This program has been sharpened recently with the addition of guest appearances by various significant leaders in business and government, who hash over the issues and answer questions from callers.

Listeners had the opportunity to upgrade their knowledge about issues facing the City of Columbia as we chatted with Bill. Economic development tops any list. Other matters on our minds included the ongoing quest for reliable airline service, future needs of the city’s utility operation, with particular emphasis on electric power requirements, and downtown improvements tied to MODESA financing.

The budgeting cycle for the next fiscal year already has begun. With the apparent flattening of revenues from sales taxes vis-à-vis an increase in the rate of inflation and hard-to-predict increases in raw-materials costs, the city has its work cut out for it as it works to balance the budget.

The word “progress” has taken on a dark, sinister meaning to some members of the community. Don’t forget that the antonym of progress is regress. There is no middle ground. If Columbia decides it wants to progress—meaning moving forward and growing—then community leaders must take the necessary steps to ensure that we move forward and never look back.

If, on the other hand, local sentiment favors the opposite, then Columbia will regress, and this could lead to it becoming a depressed community. Here’s the caveat: There’s nothing to guarantee the continued steady upward pace of Columbia’s economic activity, as depicted on the dozens of graphs in Jeff MacLellan’s PowerPoint presentation. If Columbia wants to remain a growing destination community specializing in education, insurance, health care,  the life sciences, research and, yes, construction and development, it needs to make certain that the word progress is a term we are proud of.