No incentives needed for business
There have been a series of both regular Journal and Business Outlook Section articles discussing why the New Mexico economy is not more robust and why businesses are not creating jobs. Everything has been blamed from tax rates to minimum wage requirements to lack of capable workers, etc., etc. However, all these protestations by business owners are trumped by the fact that new businesses, local and national chains, keep opening establishments in Albuquerque all the time.
There have been announcements about the openings of the new Target in Uptown as well as the brew pub/restaurant and Gengis Grille there, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Freddy’s, a Kansas chain, Kohl’s opening a store in Coronado Mall, etc., etc. These successful businesses and others like them must have found the Albuquerque and New Mexico business climate warm and friendly to make the investment necessary to open here —
higher tax rates, minimum wage requirements and all. So, perhaps the city and state economic departments should be pursuing the businesses that support those businesses — product manufacturing, warehousing, service centers, etc., in place of the quest of the more “impressive” technology companies. Yes, our workforce could be more capable, but it is certainly more than capable of handling the jobs of those types of industries. Further, addition of more of that type of capable workforce and support systems will draw more advanced businesses.
As for job creation, there is only one absolute bottom-line reason why New Mexico businesses are not adding jobs — lack of sales/increase in product demand. Whether it is the corner convenience store, local grocery store, or the electronics manufacturers, their business model is to have just enough staff to handle the expected sales. Sales increase (and stay increased), they hire. Sales are flat, they don’t hire. Yes, tax structures and wage structures affect the number of persons employed by a business — lowered and the business might reduce prices thereby increasing sales — but no business creates jobs just because the economy might get better. Well, maybe they do, but not for long unless it does get better — otherwise they fold. Christopher M. Timm Albuquerque