We were pleased to see the parish council table a move to expend $150,000 on yet another economic study, but disappointed that the item came up for a vote at all.
St. Mary Parish could stock a small library with all the studies it has undertaken over the years and, as yet, the solutions suggested in those studies have never been pursued. Of course the primary problems highlighted in those studies are not solutions a parish council can solve.
Time and time again the parish’s primary weak points were pointed out as being a shortage of housing — which is the purview of private developers — and an unskilled labor force — which is a function of personal responsibility. As far as private developers, most of our entrepreneurs head for the oil patch where returns are higher, leaving the housing opportunities orphaned.
There is no excuse for the unskilled labor force.
While the tenets underlying the proposal presented at Wednesday’s parish council meeting were a little different in concept, the bottom line is the weaknesses in those prior studies practically preclude progress on any other front until they are rectified.
Those prior studies also pointed out that our disjointed parish — full of fiefdoms, towns and component units — is practically ungovernable from an economic development standpoint. That is why the unified economic development office at the parish level was created.
A quick trip to that office’s Web site reveals that it has done nothing to overcome the unconsolidated hodgepodge confronting businessmen looking to do business here. All the things you would expect to see, such as online permitting and one-stop shopping for public services, are not there. We would have expected much more from the economic development office by now.
And so the Pogo principal continues: We have met the enemy and it is us.