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and state law (for Enterprise Zones) kept the Committee from <br /> recommending specific policies targeted at wages. Nonetheless, it wants to <br /> make clear to the City Council, and to City staff that may eventually <br /> implement Council policy, that creating stable jobs that provide good <br /> wages and/or opportunities for skill development should be an important <br /> goal or principle for economic development. The community is made up <br /> of people with a wide variety of skill sets and there should be employment <br /> opportunities for all levels of skills, and opportunities to acquire new skills <br /> and move up the wage ladder. It is the Committee's hope that several of its <br /> recommendations below (e.g., regarding incentives and business <br /> assistance) will be implemented in a way that causes more jobs with better <br /> wages to be created. <br /> <br /> · Sustainability. The Committee discussed sustainable businesses. At a <br /> broad level there is agreement that businesses that do not pollute, that deal <br /> responsibly with waste, that create products or processes that help <br /> conserve natural resources and e.cosystems, and that reuse materials and <br /> land are very desirable businesses for Eugene. The difficulty, which <br /> proved insurmountable in the time available, was to define sustainable <br /> businesses in a way that would allow them to be identified for special <br /> policy treatment, and to agree on whether special treatment for such <br /> businesses (if they could be identified) was the most effective direction for <br /> encouraging job growth. <br /> <br /> · Perceptions matter. Whether based on an objective evaluation or not, once <br /> businesses believe that a city has policies, elected officials and staff that <br /> are anti-business, then that city will have a problem in the area of <br /> economic development. At some level, that is the perception some Eugene <br /> businesses and business organizations have of Eugene. The Committee <br /> does not have a recommendation aimed directly at changing that <br /> perception. Rather, it believes that the other actions it recommends, if <br /> adopted, would address some specific problems cited by the business <br /> community. <br /> <br /> · Local revenue impacts. The Committee worked to identify economic <br /> development tools that would create a net gain for the community. As the <br /> Committee discussed different tools, it considered whether the cost of the <br /> tool, such as a tax break to a firm, would in the long-term generate more <br /> revenue for the City than it would cost the City. The Committee aimed to <br /> find actions that would have a positive fiscal impact. <br /> <br /> RECOMMENDATIONS IN SUPPORT OF NEW TOOLS <br /> This section describes the actions the Committee recommends the City <br /> Council take to further economic development in Eugene. Each recommendation <br /> has three subsections, which describe the problem, possible solutions, and the <br /> final recommendation of the Committee. <br /> <br />Mayor's Committee on Economic Development July 2004 Recommendations Page 7 <br /> <br /> <br />