How is it that Worcester, a city with 10 institutions of higher education pumping out thousands of degrees a year, is not a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity? Paraphrasing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s report: The Role of Colleges and Universities in Building Local Human Capital, colleges and universities contribute to the economic success of a region… create human capital… the knowledge and technologies created attract new firms... businesses expand and innovate... spillover effects.
So I started looking at incorporations at the state and zip code level for high-tech start-ups in software, engineering etc. Didn’t find what I was looking for, but I did find that incorporations are up statewide despite a recession. In fact business incorporations have increased 10% in Worcester year-over-year. So it got me thinking…
We’re being told by some city council candidates, Economu, Russell, Rushton, Petty, O’Brien that businesses are leaving the city in droves for the low tax outlying towns, facts that they’ve never documented, instead preferring anecdotal evidence as the basis to run their election campaigns.
So why are they using deception, or lies, whichever you prefer, to further their political careers? Perhaps because it’s in their nature? We already know two of the candidates have questionable characters – Economu and O’Brien. Are those the kind of people you want on the city council?
I wonder if Tony Economou reads the WBJ? What respectable businessman doesn’t? The Worcester Business Journal publishes bi-weekly incorporations data (local and county) taken from state records. As of mid-June 2011 there were exactly 127 new incorporations in Worcester (116 as of mid-June 2010). For the entire 2009, the City Manager’s office reports 60 incorporations. Looks like things are definitively booming despite the City's high business tax rate. How come Petty & Co. don't see that?
Surprisingly the WBJ doesn’t address the wave of new business incorporations in any articles for the last 2 years, preferring instead to write about the more mundane, less news worthy subjects – people in business. Is the WBJ made up of journalists or hired propagandists?
Nor does the WRRB address the subject of the wave of new incorporations in any of its less-than-factual publications - deftly avoiding any mention whatsoever, but continually repeating the mantra – Worcester has high tax rates compared to everyone else, and intentionally failing to mention that property assessments in those little bastions of capitalism are significantly higher. Is the WRRB a hired propagandist paid by the local business cabal? We know money talks. Pretty loud in fact.
And then there’s The Worcester Citizens for Business group led by Beth Proko, which posted on its website, last updated two years ago, that 27 businesses have left or died in Worcester over the last 10 years One casualty was a neighborhood video rental store in Burncoat.
Of course no mention of new businesses or the fact that they chose to move because they couldn’t find suitable locations in Worcester because of exorbitant rental and property prices; missing the fact that the 00's saw sky-high real estate prices in Worcester.
So why is Beth Proko intentionally spinning the facts? That’s what business people do. Honesty isn’t a character trait often found in the business world. Or in politics.
To be continued...
