An October 4th item on the Missourinet website reported on the work of a Senate Job Creation 2020 Committee that is looking at strategies that they say will lead to job creation throughout the state by 2020. But from all indications, it looks like they are focused on big-city economic development while totally ignoring the rural part of the state. That is highly ironic, seeing that some rural areas of this state were among the few places in the country to give John McCain a higher share of the vote than George W. Bush in 2004 and that the committee in particular is chaired by a Republican, Senator Tom Dempsey of St. Peters.
The Job Creation Committee has met in two different parts of the state -- Jefferson City and Kansas City, with two more meetings to follow -- in St. Louis and Columbia. That's it. No meetings for this part of the country. Nothing for Maryville. St. Joseph or Cameron or Bethany would be other acceptable locations as well. And what about places like Kirksville, Hannibal, Cape Girdareau, Springfield, or Joplin -- do they not matter all of a sudden?
Mr. Dempsey claims in the article that the process in question is an "open process." Well, Senator, how is it an open process when the nearest place that anyone can go to voice their ideas or concerns is 120 miles away? That would take a day out of my schedule, and it would take a day out of anyone else's schedule as well, when one considers the fact that you not only have to drive 2-3 hours there and back, you have to find the place and then fight traffic every step of the way.
And then they wonder why the perception is out there that our leaders have done nothing to reverse steady economic decline throughout the state. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote an editorial about this matter in its October 5th issue, hinting that the consequences of this inaction will be a decline similar to the one that has recently hit Michigan.
It is not rocket science to figure out what our needs are. Better roads -- while some of the worst roads have been repaired, our roads are still not in good shape. More money for water for our towns to repair/replace aging water and sewer systems. Putting wind farms in every town in the state and ethanol plants in every town the size of Maryville or bigger. More money for communities to tear down aging buildings -- who wants to buy up a piece of land and be stuck with the repair bill for a house that is about to fall in? But when our politicians hold meetings on our future in which our people are not able to attend without going hundreds of miles out of their way, it is not surprising that people think that their legislators simply don't care.
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