Vision 2000 and the Growing North Dakota Program

     In the late 1980s key individuals and organizations in North Dakota began to formally evaluate the future direction of the state.   In January 1988 a group entitled the North Dakota 2000 Committee was formed by the Greater North Dakota Association, a statewide chamber of commerce, to explore the state’s economy and examine its options for the future.   SRI International Consultants was hired to assist the committee.  Town hall meetings were held in 40 of the state’s communities to help North Dakotans explore the challenge before them and to begin thinking about their choices.  Over 6,700 people attended these meetings.  The program recognized that the state’s economy was at risk of declining further than it had already been.  After nearly two years and thousands of hours of research, interviews, and meetings, the committee released its first report in 1990, entitled Vision 2000 Kick-Off Report.  The report began with the following:
 

“Last October, the North Dakota 2000 Committee went out and asked if North Dakota was dying.  The people of North Dakota said yes, it would, unless we change the way we look at things" (North Dakota 2000 Committee 1990).


     The report cited the following facts to demonstrate the state’s fragility:
 

  • North Dakota was the only state in the United States to have fewer residents in 1990 than it did in 1930.
  • Per capita income had steadily declined since 1975 and was 15 percent below the national average in 1990.
  • Young people were leaving the state.  In the three years leading up to the report, 17,000 people between the ages of 22 to 25 had left North Dakota. 


     The Vision 2000 program recognized that North Dakota’s main income generators were agriculture and energy.  It asserted that the state needed to specialize and focus its economy around four economic sectors:
 

  1. Advanced agriculture and food processing
  2. Energy by-product development
  3. Export services and tourism
  4. Advanced manufacturing.


     The report stressed the need to move away from producing basic products for traditional markets and move towards producing higher value-added products designed for new, more specialized markets.  The Vision 2000 committee also noted that the state's "single biggest obstacle" for moving forward was "people with negative mind sets" (North Dakota 2000 Committee, 1993).

     Funded by a grant from several foundations, the state sent a delegation to participate in a planning session led by the Council of State Policy and Planning Agencies in 1990.  The purpose of the session was to establish a structure for the state’s economic development process.  The delegation was chaired by the state governor’s chief of staff and included the executive vice president of the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric and Telephone Cooperatives (NDAREC), legislative and farm group leaders, and the president of the Bank of North Dakota.  Bill Patrie, the state’s economic development director (and soon to be the director of the NDAREC’s rural development program) was also a participant.  The delegation helped to devise a legislative strategy for economic development, and Bill Patrie contracted with the government to prepare a legislative draft.  Governor Sinner then appointed a committee of 34 to implement a comprehensive economic development legislative program (Patrie).

     In 1991 the state legislature passed a $21 million budget for economic development for the period 1991 to 1993.  This amount was four times larger than any previous development budget (Department of Economic Development & Finance).  The funds came from earnings of the state-owned Bank of North Dakota.  This economic development legislative package was a set of policies and programs that was known as “Growing North Dakota" (Patrie). 

Growing North Dakota

The program set five specific numeric goals for the state for the year 2000:
 

  1. Have a state population of 700,000 people with equal population growth across all regions.  In 1990, the population of North Dakota was 638,800, compared to 652,717 in 1980 (Coon and Leistritz).
  2. Double the number of manufacturing jobs, from 16,400 to 32,800.
  3. Maintain the current number of full-time farming operations.
  4. Increase new exported service jobs by 8,000.
  5. Have a per capita income equal to the national average.


     In 1996, North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture Sarah Vogel noted that a major overall theme of the Growing North Dakota initiative was to increase the farmers' share of the food dollar (Vogel, October 1996).

 The 1991 legislation did the following:
 

  • Replaced the state Economic Development Commission into the Department of Economic Development & Finance
  • Created Technology Transfer, Inc., a state-chartered corporation that provides funds for commercialization of new technology 
  • Created the North Dakota Future Fund, which provides equity and debt investment for primary sector businesses 
  • Implemented the Cooperative Marketing Grants category of funding available through APUC.  The first grant to be awarded under this category from APUC went to the Dakota Growers Pasta Company (Vogel November 1996)
  • Implemented the agriculture partnership in assisting community expansion (AgPACE) fund, a program that helps to buy down the interest rate for on farm businesses and to foster non-traditional agriculture
  • Provided funding for the partnership in assisting community expansion (PACE), a program through which the Bank of North Dakota participates with local communities to reduce interest rates on business loans for primary sector businesses
  • Provided funding to the Agricultural Mediation Service, a program aimed at providing financial and managerial assistance to existing farmers so that they can remain in business
  • Permitted an additional 5 years of property tax exemption for value-added agricultural processing facilities.


     In 1993, the state legislature affirmed the Growing North Dakota program for a second time and appropriated approximately $18.5 million for the 1993-1995 biennium (North Dakota Legislative Council).  In 1995, the Growing North Dakota program was affirmed for yet a third time. 

Enhancement to Growing North Dakota

     In 1997, Governor Schafer announced a program, entitled “Enhancement to Growing North Dakota”, to conduct more specific market analysis in order to identify North Dakota’s best opportunities for growth and diversification.  The Department of Economic Development & Finance hired two consulting firms, Arthur Andersen LLP and Flour Daniel Consulting, to help with the project.  These firms conducted a competitive assessment of the state.  Enhancement to Growing North Dakota aims to create stronger linkages between government, education, and the private sector so that the state is better prepared to shape its economic future.

     The Vision 2000 initiative has been credited with helping to create a more positive, entrepreneurial attitude in the state, and the Growing North Dakota legislative program has been key to the state's technical and financial support of cooperative activity (Springer).

References

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