Governors discuss strategies to help rural economies - Entrepreneur Generations

At last week's annual meeting of the National Governors Association in Salt Lake City, Utah, leaders from across the nation discussed innovative ways to boost flagging economies in rural areas.

"Rural America is too vast and varied to paint with a single brush. Many rural areas are thriving. Still, it’s clear that overall, the rural economy is falling far behind major metropolitan counties," Alan Greenblatt reports for Governing. "Urban areas enjoy an outsized share of the nation’s economic growth, while 30 percent of rural ZIP codes have experienced downward mobility over the past decade. Only one in five small counties has added businesses, on net, since the Great Recession."

Rural areas also lag metropolitan areas in population growth, educational attainment, and workforce participation as well. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem noted that "We educate a lot of these students and then they leave to take jobs . . . That's probably been our biggest challenge," Greenblatt reports.

Nathan Ohle of the Rural Community Assistance Partnership noted that rural jobs have historically been involved in extraction of resources, meaning harvesting crops, mining, and logging, for instance, Bethany Rodgers reports for The Salt Lake Tribune.

Many governors have championed initiatives with similar themes, including broadband expansion, building workforce housing, and expanding Medicaid, but Val Hale, economic development director for Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, noted that a one-size-fits-all approach won't work, Greenblatt reports.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2YccY4B Governors discuss strategies to help rural economies - Entrepreneur Generations

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