Hank Silverberg, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – The economy in the Washington region is still better than many places across the country, but the potential cut backs in federal workers and federal spending has intensified the need to diversify the workforce.
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors chairman Sharon Bulova says there is some tough but friendly competition between jurisdictions across the Washington region to land new industry and new jobs not connected to the federal government.
“Our philosophy for economic development is diversify, diversify, diversify,” says Bulova. “When you are selling this area, you are really selling the region.”
The main competition for Fairfax County comes from Montgomery County, Maryland. Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett also calls the competition friendly.
“I don’t buy into this ‘one has to be better and the other is worse’ philosophy,” Leggett says. He believes the success of both counties helps the region win.
“This is the equivalent to having both Larry Bird and Magic Johnson on the same basketball team,” he says.
The two county leaders were among a large group of local leaders assembled for the Council of Governments end of year annual meeting.
Both of them expressed concern about the lack of action on Capitol Hill to cut the federal deficit and may key decisions on federal spending.
Both counties rely heavily on federal workers and defense contracts to help balance their own tax base.
“It’s important that all of their eggs not be in basket of federal contracting,” says Bulova.
The COG members also heard from U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D – Va.), who warned that federal allocations the counties are used to – everything from transportation to homeland security funds – are likely to be smaller than years past.
But Warner also told them he is pretty sure Congress will reach some kind of spending agreement that will prevent the temporary shutdown of the federal government at year’s end.
“I can not imagine, that a week before Christmas, the leadership of the Congress of the United States in both parties would put the country through another of these fire drills around a government shutdown,” says Warner.
Warner then qualified his statement. “Of course, I’m not in management.”
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