{"id":9991,"date":"2018-03-29T07:00:43","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T11:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=9991"},"modified":"2018-03-28T19:09:20","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T23:09:20","slug":"moco-establishment-growth-is-almost-last-in-the-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=9991","title":{"rendered":"MoCo Establishment Growth is Almost Last in the Region"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n

Recently, we published an astonishing statistic<\/a>: the State Department of Assessments and Taxation processed just nineteen new business filings in Montgomery County in FY16.\u00a0 In the year before, there were 57 new business filings in the county.\u00a0 We were skeptical of this statistic because it only applied to two years, thereby making it subject to flukiness.\u00a0 It is also conceptually incomplete.\u00a0 For example, a business headquartered in another Maryland county and opening a new location in MoCo would not be captured in new filings for the county.\u00a0 So we checked data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and confirmed a grim fact: MoCo\u2019s growth in establishments is almost dead last in the Washington region.<\/p>\n

BLS tracks net growth in establishments for states and counties.\u00a0 BLS uses this definition<\/a> for an establishment:<\/p>\n

The physical location of a certain economic activity\u2014for example, a factory, mine, store, or office. A single establishment generally produces a single good or provides a single service. An enterprise (a private firm, government, or nonprofit organization) can consist of a single establishment or multiple establishments. All establishments in an enterprise may be classified in one industry (e.g., a chain), or they may be classified in different industries (e.g., a conglomerate).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

BLS has establishment data for states and counties going back to 2001 on its website<\/a>.\u00a0 The screenshot below shows establishment data for MoCo from 2001 through 2016, the last complete year for which BLS has data.\u00a0 It shows a pattern of slow establishment growth that stopped in 2007 and has basically flat-lined since.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In comparison with the 24 jurisdictions that comprise the Washington metro area<\/a>, MoCo ranks second-to-last in rate of establishment growth from 2001 through 2016.\u00a0 Only tiny Falls Church City was worse.\u00a0 The county\u2019s rate of growth over the period (10%) was about one-third the region\u2019s rate (32%) and Fairfax County\u2019s rate (30%).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There is one other difference between MoCo and most of its competitors in the region.\u00a0 Starting around 2011, the region began to recover from the Great Recession and most jurisdictions started growing their establishment count again.\u00a0 Between 2011 and 2016, the region\u2019s 24 local jurisdictions collectively recorded a net gain of 13,939 establishments.\u00a0 D.C. and Fairfax County added more than 3,000 each.\u00a0 MoCo had a net gain of 6.\u00a0 Not 600 or 60.\u00a0 SIX.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2011 was the first full calendar year that the county\u2019s FY11 doubling of the energy tax was in effect.\u00a0 Is that a factor in what has happened since then?<\/p>\n

The establishment data aligns with other data we have published on employment and income<\/a>, the recent budget shortfall<\/a>, the county\u2019s increasing reliance on corporate welfare to attract and retain employers<\/a>, the lack of new business filings<\/a> and the impact of the liquor monopoly on the restaurant industry<\/a>.\u00a0 The county has great assets, including its educated workforce, its superior schools and college, a large federal presence, low crime, high wealth in some of its zip codes<\/a> and almost no public corruption.\u00a0 But we are underachieving economically and that is going to come back to haunt us sooner rather than later.\u00a0 Revitalizing the economy must be a key issue in the upcoming election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco. Recently, we published an astonishing statistic: the State Department of Assessments and Taxation processed just nineteen new business filings in Montgomery County in FY16.\u00a0 In the year before, there were 57 new business filings in the county.\u00a0 We were skeptical of this statistic because it only applied to two years, thereby making … Continue reading MoCo Establishment Growth is Almost Last in the Region<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[151,338],"tags":[1545,1993],"class_list":["post-9991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-economy","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-economy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-2B9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9991"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9996,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9991\/revisions\/9996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}