One Acadiana announces first of four priorities to better area

By: HARLAN KIRGAN
LSN Newspapers

GRAND COTEAU — One Acadiana, a nine-parish economic development organization, announced that accelerating the region’s economic development momentum is the first of four of its “Priorities for a Better Acadiana.”
The backdrop for the announcement Tuesday was the automated Noble Plastics Manufacturing plant in Grand Coteau, which was founded in 2000 and recently received the Louisiana Economic Development Lantern Award.
 Noble Plastics is a business developed with help from state incentives, which were cited as a tool to spur economic growth.
The incentives were jeopardized by legislators seeking budget-balancing solutions in the legislative session that ended in April.
One Acadiana stated, “Economic development incentives programs represent less than 5 percent of the state’s total tax exemption budget, yet they shouldered a disproportionate share of the blame in the debate over how to balance the budget. Programs were slashed across the board with little consideration for impact on job creation and investment.”
Jason El Koubi, One Acadiana president and chief executive officer, said members of the organization have met with the four major candidates for governor and legislative candidates in the nine parishes to discuss its priorities.
“The responses from virtually every conversation have been very, very positive and we have not focused on personalities so much as the issues in those conversations,” he said.
Over four weeks, One Acadiana is to announce its priorities and at the end of the process it will release a white paper on the priorities. A list of candidates who have aligned themselves with the priorities also will be announced.
“We started by asking our members and by asking our partners what is important to them,” El Koubi said. “We we had a number of conversations including our board and through that process  it narrowed a laundry list of priorities to four specific things that we could invest significant effort in analyzing and researching for specific solutions.”
Besides accelerating economic development, the other three priorities are: Protect and advance gains in Pre-K through 12 public education; Unlock Acadiana’s workforce development potential; and Complete Interstate 49 South and accelerate planning of regional transporation projects.
El Koubi said, “One Acadiana led the development of a focused set of priorities representing significant opportunities to take our region to the next level.”
From 1980 to 2005, just before Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana’s economy under-performed the South and U.S., he said. “We were the only state in the South to experience more than two consecutive decades of more people leaving Louisiana than moving here,” he said. “Thankfully things are different now – through the collaborative efforts of Louisiana Economic Development working with local and regional partners to secure economic development wins with thousands of new jobs, billions of dollars in capital investment, and new sales for small businesses statewide. There has never been a better time to pursue economic opportunities right here at home.”
Accelerating the momentum of the economic growth equates to cultivating a competitive state business environment as well as maintaining strong executive leadership and financial support for Louisiana’s Department of Economic Development, a One Acadiana news release stated.
Since January 2008, Louisiana’s private-sector employment growth ranks second best in the South and seventh best in the U.S., One Acadiana stated. The state has added more private-sector jobs in that period than Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia, combined. Through the collaborative efforts of Louisiana Economic Development working with local and regional partners to secure economic development wins, the state has gained more than 91,000 new jobs, $62 billion in capital investment, and billions of dollars in new sales for small businesses statewide.
“Our nine-parish region is working together like never before,” El Koubi said, “Our regional business community and other partners have invested in One Acadiana for the purposes of making this a stronger, more sustainable, more prosperous region for our businesses and families. And, we are doing that in a very inclusive and very collaborative way.”
 Paul Watts, general manager of the Bell Helicopter Assembly Center in Lafayette, said, “A major reason why Louisiana ended up on the top of our list was because it offers a low-cost of doing business, but certainly a deciding factor for Lafayette was the alignment from the governor right down to the local leadership during the selection process.”
Bell Helicopter will manufacture its 505 Jet Ranger X at the facility with deliveries to begin in 2016, he said.
Missy Rogers, president of Noble Plastics, highlighted the importance of effective economic development programs in spurring innovation.
“Noble Plastics spent nearly $5 million in the last five years on research and development,” she said, referring to recent cuts to the Research and Development Tax Credit. “The R&D credit allowed us to take risks in new markets and technologies, creating more business in Louisiana, primarily in the defense industry, but we now face changing rules mid-stream.”
Bill Rodier, executive director of St. Landry Economic Development, said, “For nearly a decade, Louisiana has done something special by prioritizing economic development and a competitive business environment. More homegrown companies, like Noble Plastics are pushing the envelope of what’s possible. More companies are choosing Louisiana and more people are moving here for good jobs.”
Rodier said economic development begins at the local level, but leadership, vision and incentives are needed at the state level for economic development.
Mike Tarantino, president and chief executive officer of Iberia Industrial Development Foundation, said said Louisiana has done an excellent job of providing tools to developers.
“When you invest you need to know that those incentives are going to continue to be there so that they build in that investment and move forward,” Tarantino said.
“As a member of Louisiana’s Board of International Commerce, one game-changing initiative I see for our region and state is implementing our new master plan for international commerce,” he said. “Putting the plan in action could yield 15,000 jobs a year through increased trade and foreign direct investment.”
Mike Barefield, who grew up in Louisiana and recently moved his family back to the area in order to work for CGI, said, “I’m happy to be back not only to enjoy the familiar sights, sounds, and tastes that I missed, but also because the region has grown so much. Somehow this place has managed to retain its charm and still offer cutting edge options like fiber optics — a key building block to successful IT companies and other internet-based companies.” Barefield’s son, Andrew, also now works for CGI in Lafayette.
CGI is an information technology business that Barefield said expects to employ up to 400 people at its Lafayette location next to the University of Louisiana Lafayette campus.
For more information on “Priorities for a Better Acadiana” visit OneAcadiana.org.
One Acadiana has more than 1,200 investors, members, and partners in Lafayette, Acadia, St. Landry, Evangeline, Jeff Davis, Vermilion, St. Martin, Iberia and St. Mary parishes.
The organization is located in the city of Lafayette and serves a region of roughly 700,000 people.