Will anyone trust the results?

This just in from planet Neptune: the Chamber of Commerce will hire the BBER to do an economic study of the impact of building the Red Plan on the economy of Duluth. Oh, its going to be an independent project so we can trust the results. No incestuousness here.

The Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce has heard the same speculation as the rest of our community regarding the likely economic impact of the Duluth Public Schools Long Range Facilities Plan. But rather than continuing to depend on educated guesses regarding the impact, the Chamber has hired a respected research organization to provide solid data on how the project is impacting the local economy.

The Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) at the University of Minnesota Duluth Labovitz School of Business and Economics is beginning an in-depth analysis of the direct impact hiring local design teams, construction workers and others will have on the community. In addition, the study will show how many jobs will be created and how many dollars will be pumped into the local economy as a result of the project. The Chamber is paying the BBER $2,500 to conduct the study, which is expected to be completed by June 1.

This study will use sophisticated computer modeling. Wonderful. So did the financiers on Wall Street who kept lending money to house flippers and the marginally employed so that Mortgage brokers could make huge commissions on fraudulent loans. But the financiers knew they were on the right track because some Nobel laureate physicists had come up with a can’t miss sophisticated economic model.

I have no doubt that the BBER will get the same results as the consultants who told us how we would be rolling in dough after the Aquarium was built.

Of course, the bankers like the Chamber of Commerce, weren’t that dumb. They made sure to sell off the ownership of these glittering assets to other banks until, just like the Red Plan, everybody owned a piece of the debt. Except for Johnson Controls and the builders. I’m sure their economy will do very well, thank you.

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