A ST. TAMMANY NEWS EDITORIAL

What a difference a year makes. That was the sentiment of Louisiana Secretary of Louisiana Economic Development Steven Moret Wednesday as he addressed the East St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon. The last time he had addressed the group was a year ago, just as the national economy started to go into a deep slide into recession.

A year later, and Moret came to the parish to give us some good news. Despite the continuing recession, Louisiana in general and St. Tammany Parish is particular is doing very well indeed. Even though the state lost some jobs, our employment rate is still 2 percent lower than the national rate. Businesses are coming into the state and setting up shop, which is nothing but good news for us. Moret said the future of the parish is bright, for several reasons. For starters, we are at the beginning of the Interstate 12 corridor that extends to Baton Rouge. This corridor has lots of land for development and the sky is the limit for the parish. Secondly, the federal government will inject $50 million into NASA’s Michoud facility so it can transition from the shuttle program to the Constellation project, which will send people to the moon and eventually to Mars. That means more jobs in the parish, less of a population shift and more tax revenue. Moret also had nothing but kudos for the St. Tammany Economic Development Foundation, which has brought many companies into the parish. If there is a downside to all this, it is finding a viable workforce for all the new businesses cropping up, but Moret said that with projects like the one to build college and technical schools in Lacombe so that students can either get a college or technical education shows that the parish is thinking ahead and preparing for that bright future. Let’s hope that it all works out.

Since Hurricane Katrina, this parish has seen unprecedented growth that has improved our quality of life. If Secretary Moret is correct, we can expect our economy to grow, and our parish to lead the way in making Louisiana an economic powerhouse.