The inaugural Orange County Economic Development Summit took place on October 17, with Orange County commissioners and business leaders joining WCHL’s Aaron Keck to discuss the local economy and how it impacts tourism, the arts and workforce creation. Listen to all eight parts of the inaugural summit on the Chapelboro On Demand page.
Mark Dorosin is the chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners. He joined Aaron Keck to kick off the Orange County Economic Development Summit.
“When we talk about Orange County and economic development, we on the Board of Commissioners, and the community also, try to think as broadly as possible. For a long time, I think economic development generally has had sort of a narrow interpretation locally about, you know, could you attract a new business? Could you draw something in? Bringing someone in from the outside, sort of the big-game hunting model. Trying to land a big factory or industry.
“In Orange County, we’ve always taken a little different approach to it. We look at economic development in a more diversified way and a way that more closely fit with our values of social justice and environmentalism. And so when we talk about economic development in the county, we talk about things like our support for the arts, agriculture, entrepreneurship and tourism.”
During their conversation, Dorosin mentioned that a narrow view of economic development looks at success only at the tax base. For a long time, discussions were about how to increase the non-residential tax base. However, this is not how the Board of Commissioners wants to look at economic development going forward.
“What we want to look at is a broader measure of success. Living wages. Housing. Is there a way to ensure that farming stays profitable? Overall opportunities to reduce poverty and its impacts are related to economic development. There are anti-poverty programs where people have studied and said ‘They need more money!’ How do you do that?”
Listen to the complete interview with Orange County Board of Commissioners chair Mark Dorosin