Mike Layton - Prosperity Without Growthby Mike Layton Most residents of Thurston County don't know they're subsidizing growth, with their tax money, for the handful who are reaping growth's rewards. And, apparently, many of those who do know don't care, even though opposition to taxes is the steadiest single constant in American public life. The average yearly cost to every taxpayer in the county of the new roads, new water systems, new schools and new parks necessary to accommodate growth is roughly $1,200. That's the price worked out by the Carnegie Group from data in the recent report by the Thurston Regional Planning Council. The group takes its name from its meeting place at the Four Seasons Carnegie bookstore, itself a recent victim of the invasive growth that plagues the community. Never before, in this county at least, have figures been put together in growth's balance sheet. They've been available but those interests benefitting from them never added them up for public discussion. Understandably so. Those taxpayer subsidies have built the roads and schools and other amenities to accommodate a county population increase from 105,240 in 1976 to the present 193,000. That's an 85 percent jump in 20 years. One more figure: the planners' estimate to meet the demands of growth in the next five years is $570 million, and that doesn't include costs of upgrading the LOTT sewage system. Some areas, and others will soon follow, are running out of ground water. And there's the cost to Tumwater, $1 million, to replace three wells contaminated by industrial solvents. The cost may double before those wells are cleaned up. And still booster groups and a probable majority of local elected officials want more growth, more cars for more roads. They still believe, in spite of evidence all around them, that growth is good, that it pays for itself. Growth beyond an optimum level doesn't help small business. Who benefited when Ernst moved to the community and drove out locally owned businesses? And who benefits now when Ernst is driven out by "big box" stores? Small businesses create jobs, pay wages to local people, pay taxes and support local services and the amenities that make this area "most livable." The Carnegie Group, a collection of more than a dozen taxpayers, has sought out candidates for office to city positions this fall and is giving its support to those who show sincerely they believe growth should pay for itself. Interest groups rating candidates is routine. But the bipartisan Carnegie Group's call for cautious appraisal of the cost of growth to taxpayers is new in this state. "We're not asking for a moratorium on growth," says Jerry Parker, a leader of the group. "But we think growth should pay for growth." The Group's gut feeling that growth as we - friends and foes alike - view it benefits only a few at the expense of the many is reinforced in a treatise by the Rocky Mountain Institute. "The premise of Sustainable Development: Prosperity Without Growth," is that the word growth can have two meanings - "expansion" and "development." The institute defines expansion only as getting bigger. Development is getting better. Its analogy is the human body in which growth after maturity is cancer. "When a town continues to expand after maturity, its cancer becomes manifest in many ways: spiteful controversy, higher taxes, traffic, sprawl, lost sense of community." Like the human body, the town can improve itself. European communities afford us common sense examples of development without expansion. The south German town of Tier is more than 1,000 years old, yet it is still surrounded by forests and farm fields. Community life there is vigorous and prosperous. Why is Thurston County so eager to grow - or expand? The work force is stable, the economy is humming nicely. The only significant economic problems are those created by past growth itself. We're never going to grow ourselves out of those. But builders want to put up more mansions and land speculators hope for unearned bonanzas. Many merchants, even those hurt already by mindless growth and malls to go with it, think more growth means more customers. Convincing the hard core "all growth is good" types, especially when they have a pecuniary interest in bulldozing the neighborhood, is tough, in spite of plain evidence. "Anti-business," is the epithet hurled at the Carnegie Group by one booster newsletter outraged that common citizens be asked to dare question costs. Such nonsense is right out of the propagandist's handbook. The Carnegie Group's platform supports "growth of local businesses that keep money in our communities, and discourages recruitment of businesses that take more money out of our communities than they bring in." It's as simple as that. Mike Layton is a staff writer for the Green Pages. He is also a member of the Carnegie Group.
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