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Business leaders bullish on 2009
Business leaders bullish on 2009By Bill Walsh
Times-Democrat Staff Writer
The bad news is that local business suffered in 2008, especially, as elsewhere across the country, at Christmas. The good news, Karen Henderson said, is that ours was a more gentle descent.
"We hear from Wal-Mart that things are doing just fine," the Chamber of Commerce president said with a laugh. "The retailers on Main Street...business is a little down, I would estimate 10 to 15 percent down. Being so close to Washington, D.C., we have a little bit of pad around us that other counties do not have. Front Royal is experiencing 20 percent losses in sales."
The bad news is that local business suffered in 2008. On a more positive side, the news has been gloomy enough and frightening enough that business may, at long last, get a better seat at the governing table, Henderson said.
"I do believe that nervousness [over the economy] brings awareness of how tentative the good days are to begin with," she said in the Chamber's Keith Street offices before Christmas. "We keep opening the door for residents, but not for business, and the more nervous people get, the awareness is heightened and the call for action becomes louder and louder. I am hoping to see some changes."
Supervisors, she said — some of them, at any rate — are "more willing to talk and meet than I have seen in my eight years here at the Chamber. I have faith that this county will eventually see the light, find the balance."
Maybe, she added, 2009 may just be the time for that to happen.
"The business community perceives Fauquier County government...to be non-business-friendly," Dennis Taylor agreed. Taylor, owner of Catlett-based Paradigm Solutions, which offers consulting services to help businesses run more smoothly and efficiently.
"There is a sense that the county does not want business development," he said.
Both business leaders agreed that the current debate about the Economic Development Department — should it stay? Should it go? Should it change? — is mostly smoke and mirrors to deflect attention away from how difficult it is for new firms to get a toehold in Fauquier.
"From an enablement standpoint, there is a two-stage process that, either designed on purpose or by happenstance, precludes businesses coming in," Taylor said.
"The Economic Development office will identify people who are interested in coming in. They bring them in, tell them what we've got, then they take them to Community Development where, effectively, they hit a wall," he said. "They realize that it will take...two and a half years to get planning, permitting, zoning. And Culpeper is down there saying, 'come on down.'
"I think we have to streamline and integrate that process so it is not two separate processes," he suggested.
Henderson is on board with that. "We hear nothing but complaints," she said; "people can't move their applications forward" here as they can in surrounding jurisdictions.
All that could change, given a downturn that is wider and deeper than anyone envisioned even a few short months ago.
This, Taylor argued, is a golden opportunity that we shouldn't let pass.
"We don't have to build houses," he noted; there are plenty of those on the market.
"If we are going to do this, there has never, ever been a better time, in my opinion," he said. "Let's get the collective bodies together and make some smart decisions and get going.
"The immediate thing is to get some clear direction on what exactly economic development is. What do we want, where do we want it, and how are we going to go get it?"
If attracting business is not exactly simple, it's not rocket science, either, Henderson said.
Align the two county departments, as Taylor suggested, of course, she said. More to the point, reform the local tax code which, in its current form, all but precludes business from locating here.
"Fauquier County has the highest tax burden on business in the commonwealth, $4.65 per $100 of equipment," Henderson said.
"The burden is enormous on these businesses that are trying to stay afloat. In the meantime, agriculture has zero taxation on it — not even a token. The Chamber would like to see a little more balance in that aspect," she said.
And a little more balance across the board.
Fauquier County, Henderson said, arguably has a business tax base of between 13 and 20 percent of its revenue.
"The International City/County Managers Association says a healthy community should have 38 to 40 percent of its revenue from business to offset the cost to residents," Henderson said.
"Prince William County is just about at the same level we are. However, the tax revenue from one mile of Ball's Ford Road would equal the entire tax revenue from business in Fauquier County. That's the difference in the thought process."
Still, no one wants to pave paradise.
"I don't want us to look like Manassas, either," Henderson said. "But Manassas is thriving.
How do we do it? We need to build the infrastructure...so that we can actually attract the kind of business" that a concerted effort from government, from the business community will envision.
Both Taylor and Henderson think there are some aspects of California's Napa Valley that are appropriate for emulation here.
Napa Vallie "is largely agricultural, highly tourism-driven," Taylor said. "They have pulled all their assets together and said, wow, we have something here that is beautiful. It is not all pavement and concrete. People come from all over the world to see it.
"We don't have to do things on that scale, but we need to make Fauquier County one of those destinations, a place to go visit and spend money," he said.
Not just development. Smart development.
But also, Taylor said, understanding that no development is not smart, either.
"Loudoun, Fairfax — that was not smart development," he said. "We want something in between. But until we define that and put in place a plan that gets actively worked on it, nothing is going to change. And there are a lot of people who are just frustrated by that."
The times, the are a-changin'.
People in the business community "are generally very positive," heading into 2009, Taylor said.
"Are they concerned? Yeah. But I don't see a lot of worry, I don't see a lot of hand-wringing, I don't see a lot of people jumping off buildings. People are convinced we are going to get through this. We are not as bad off as a lot of areas."
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