With the conclusion of the State Business Incentives Database summer update, the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) will be publishing a series of blog posts. This inaugural post focuses on general trends and how programs have shifted over the past year. Of particular interest are the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it continues to shape program type and focus.

Through the American Rescue Plan (ARPA), the Economic Development Administration (EDA) is supporting states in economic planning efforts by allocating $59 million in grants through the Statewide Planning, Research & Networks program. To better understand how states are using these funds, the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC), in partnership with the State Economic Development Executives (SEDE) Network, conducted a survey of states during the summer of 2022 to learn how the $1 million grant funds were used.

America’s strength and sustainable development in the 21st Century depends upon a thriving manufacturing sector.  That means we need far more progress aligning efforts to include those between states and Economic Development Districts. Stakeholders gathered on March 30, 2022, to focus on the importance of DEI in manufacturing ownership and its workforce.

Remote worker attraction programs represent an exciting innovation for state and local economic development. Recent studies examined two of the longest-standing remote worker attraction programs: the Vermont New Remote Workers Grant Program and Tulsa Remote. Panelists at a recent roundtable shared their findings on the effectiveness of worker attraction incentives.

On March 15-17, the State International Development Organizations (SIDO) held their Washington Leadership Forum where over 40 state international trade directors convened for high level meetings with key federal officials. The session centered around our current project with the Economic Development Administration (EDA) focused on enhancing state and local EDO engagement to support Covid-19 recovery and resiliency.

At the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) Policy Conference in March, the EDA, CREC, and Economic Development Districts (EDDs) from Arkansas and New Mexico discussed approaches to improved collaboration with state governments.

The State Economic Development Executives (SEDE) network is interested in learning more about how states would be spending the $59 million in the non-competitive State Planning Grants and $510 million in the non-competitive State Tourism Grants. The Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness conducted two surveys to learn state plans for each of the two grants.

At the October 2021 NADO Annual Training Conference, Bob Isaacson from the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC) had the opportunity to discuss state and local EDD alignment and collaboration with about 23 individuals (generally representing EDDs).