The Importance Of Regional Cooperation

Last month at the Mackinac Policy Conference I announced the possibility of designating the Renaissance Center a "Renaissance Zone" in order to provide General Motors the flexibility it needs to work through bankruptcy and restructuring. Doing this required the support of both the City of Detroit, through Mayor Dave Bing, and the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC), through George Jackson. They quickly recognized the gravity of the situation and agreed to abate all taxes to businesses located in our region's largest business complex.

While the fate of GM is unfortunate, and while tax abatements are better utilized for businesses that are actually creating jobs, I could not bear to see GM leave the Motor City and leave the Renaissance Center without its biggest tenant. The businesses that are dependent on GM's presence at the RenCen are numerous and, given the investments made to the Center and to the Riverwalk, it was important for us to keep GM in Detroit, even if it must downsize its operations.

My administration is pleased to have found a partner in newly-elected Detroit Mayor Dave Bing. His sense of urgency and his understanding of the needs of the business community stand to benefit Detroit and our region. Clearly, in these challenging economic times, we must find ways to work together to attract and retain businesses, and to forge a new economic paradigm that will help our economy flourish in the future. By pooling our resources and our talents, and by working across political borders, we can realize mutual benefits and overcome the barriers to change that have hindered economic progress in the past.

My administration has also pursued regional cooperation through the Detroit Region Aerotropolis Project, partnering with Washtenaw County, the Wayne County Airport Authority, and seven local governments in the creation of an airport city. On June 17th, we held a ceremony in Taylor commemorating our partnership and the signing of an intergovernmental agreement to form an Aerotropolis Development Corporation (ADC), which empowers our communities to work together to plan the area around our airports and attract business in a unified matter. The partners recognize that, even if a business chooses to locate in one community over another, the very presence of that business can drive economic activity elsewhere in the region. And if we market the region as a whole to the world, we will be able to present a vision that, no matter where you locate in the region, you will be treated with a high degree of customer service and you will encounter a set of standard regulatory procedures to get your business in the ground. The Aerotropolis effort has also drawn support from communities in Oakland County that recognize the airports as an economic engine for all of Metro Detroit, and that increased business activity around the airports should benefit businesses located in their city.

Meanwhile, we have also worked with Washtenaw County, Ann Arbor Spark and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) on the Life Sciences Research and Innovation Center in Plymouth Township. The Center, which once housed Pfizer, is a business incubator designed to help growing life sciences companies develop products for the marketplace. Even though Plymouth Township is located in Wayne County, our partners in Washtenaw County recognized the value in the facility and the need to put it into productive use for the region. In fact, so many workers from the Ann Arbor area work in western Wayne County that Ann Arbor and Canton are creating a shuttle service to help workers access jobs in both regions.

The above examples demonstrate that no city or county in Southeast Michigan exists in isolation from another. We all commute, shop, and live in different parts of the region. Given our economic downturn, we must look past our political and social boundaries because our citizens need jobs now, no matter where they are. By working on a regional level, we ensure that there are no winners or losers, but rather that we all benefit from attracting and retaining jobs here in Southeast Michigan.