Recapping the CSG West Virtual Annual Meeting
By Joel Sams, The Council of State Governments
During a session of The Council of State Governments (CSG) West virtual conference on July 30, Western state leaders explored how to heal state economies impacted by COVID-19.
As part of the Economic Development committee, Utah state Rep. Bradley Last (chair) and California state Sen. Ben Allen (vice chair) moderated a discussion exploring economic developments, challenges and opportunities for Western states in the wake of the pandemic.
Panelists included Chris Dombrowski (California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, or GO-Biz), Melanie Sheldon (Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development), Val Hale (Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development) and Josh Dorrell, (Wyoming Business Council).
“COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on all the states with respect to our economies,” Last said. “There is no one-size-fits-all all solution to reviving economic growth, but today we will be talking about different things that have happened in our states and solutions individual states have come up with.”
During the conversation, panelists compared economic challenges and opportunities. Dombrowski shared a small business initiative encouraging Californians to shop locally, and he also emphasized the need for continuing federal support.
“Make no mistake that we need new round of stimulus, and we need more help for our businesses, particularly our small businesses,” he said. “Here in California, our rising case numbers are causing rollbacks to our re-opening process to keep people safe.”
Other discussion included a small business initiative (Utah), a residential housing support program (Nevada), plans for economic diversification (Wyoming) and much more.
In Nevada, which has seen dramatic impacts in the tourism and hospitality sector, Sheldon said economic healing will be tied to the public health response workforce diversification.
“Public health response and economic policy cannot be separated at this stage,” Sheldon said. “That’s going to be really important going forward. And once again, for somewhere like Nevada, it’s building that new workforce for the new normal and beyond and redeploying these disenfranchised workers into something different.”
For the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, Hale also reiterated the importance of consumer confidence as states navigate the aftermath of COVID-19.
“The key going forward for Utah and other states is consumer confidence — convincing people it’s safe to go out and engage in economy again is critical.”