Economic Recovery & Job Creation Strategy

With input from member cities and counties, public and private sector leaders, labor leaders, SCAG’s team of independent economic advisors consolidated the information from individual county reports to prepare the Southern California Economic Recovery & Job Creation Strategy, which included a common set of regional priorities that help businesses, public agencies, and communities improve their economic viability with immediate and long-term recommendations.

Phase 1

The Southern California Economic Recovery & Job Creation Strategy concentrates on expanding the region’s economic base to increase the flow of funds driving the area’s economy. It is based upon the region’s job creation needs given its unique competitive advantages and demographics. Several sectors emerge as crucial: international trade and logistics, film and related sectors, high tech and traditional manufacturing, construction, health care, and leisure industries. The aim is to create conditions encouraging job creation in these sectors in the immediate, short and longer terms as well as preserving the businesses in the region. Ultimately, the approach is to allow each city, county and sub-regional entity the flexibility to deal with those aspects of the strategy with which they are comfortable, while providing mechanisms allowing jurisdictions to cooperate for the good of Southern California. Fundamental to the strategy is the belief that stronger economic growth will help every community.

The Southern California Economic Recovery and Job Growth Strategy is not intended to duplicate, compete, or negatively impact local and county economic objectives, but rather to determine a common set of priorities for the region that helps businesses, public agencies, and communities improve their economic viability.

Objectives

• Identify Southern California advantages for attracting economic development.
• Preserve current key economic industries and encourage their continued economic viability.
• Determine key industry and business sectors that present expanded investment potential.
• Create incentives for more and new lasting businesses that create jobs (including growing region’s innovation growth potential).
• Identify strategies for encouraging economically stronger communities within the region.
• Identify strategies for encouraging small businesses to flourish.
• Ensure incentives for skilled employees that can support businesses such as ensuring availability of education/training along with dissemination of such resources.
• Identify strategies to connect people to good jobs.

Benefits of Working Together on a Regional Economic Strategy

• Vital economic communities.
• Meaningful employment.
• Skilled and market paid workforce.
• Additional business investment to grow local industries.
• Improved livability for residents.
• Reduced reliance on tax revenue to provide social service responsibilities due to higher employment rate.

Southern California Economic Recovery & Job Creation Strategy

Phase 2

Given the continuing economic challenges facing Southern California, the adoption of the Regional Transportation Plan (with its first ever Sustainable Communities Strategy) and the growing opportunity for even greater partnership between business, labor, and local government, 2012 is the time for SCAG—working with its partner organizations—to develop Phase II of the Southern California Economic Recovery & Job Creation Strategy.

With this in mind, the proposed additional steps in implementing the Economic Recovery Strategy would have the following focus areas as outlined below:

• Reforms
  • Project Streamlining & Expediting
  • Infrastructure Finance
  • Business Retention & Attraction
  • Advocacy Strategy
• Engaging Southern California’s State and Federal Legislators
  • Engaging Southern California’s Labor Partners
  • Marshaling Southern California’s Collective Strength
  • Local Participation
• Economic Clusters
• Economic Impact Analysis

To support implementation of the above objectives, SCAG has assembled a team of prominent independent economic advisors and specialists.

Phase II of the Southern California Economic Recovery & Job Creation Strategy