Hayden considering whether to continue funding JobsPlus

HAYDEN — Hayden City Council members indicated during a budget workshop last week that the city may discontinue providing funding to the Coeur d’Alene Area Economic Development Corporation, formerly known as JobsPlus.

The council met with CdAEDC Executive Director Gynii Gilliam in a workshop Tuesday to hear what the organization offers the city.

CdAEDC was founded in 1987 to recruit businesses to the region, assist them with launching when they arrive, match them to local employees, and in turn, contribute to economic prosperity in the region.

Hayden pays $10,000 a year to help fund the organization.

Since 2020, CdAEDC has shifted its focus from attracting business to supporting existing businesses.

“More than half of our time is dedicated to the needs of our existing businesses right now,” Gilliam said during the workshop. “Only 30% of our office time is spent on business attraction. During COVID we needed to focus on our existing businesses because they needed support. Because we have the workforce housing issue, we’ve been focusing on helping our existing companies survive.”

Last week, Hayden City Council member Matt Roetter suggested CdAEDC might not be necessary because, with the shortages of employees and workforce housing, the region doesn’t need the organization to focus on attracting more businesses.

CdAEDC has directly contributed $1.7 million in tax revenue to the region since 2015, Gilliam said.

It has also brought 3,500 jobs, between $116 million to $182 million in payroll, and $253 million in capital investment to the Coeur d’Alene area, according to CdAEDC data.

Because one of the greatest struggles for businesses is attracting and maintaining employees, the CdAEDC directs money and research to finding solutions to that problem, in the short- and long-term.

For the short-term, they’ve done studies indicating businesses could provide incentive for employees to stay by providing $100 per month toward child care. In the long-term, the focus is on keeping people in the county who might be priced out of the market or workforce. This could be done, for example, by promoting high-wage jobs in businesses and providing regional training opportunities to fill those positions.

“We have been helping the Panhandle Affordable Housing Alliance,” Gilliam said. “We wanted to make sure all of us were working on the same issues, and we wanted to make sure all of the solutions are data-driven.”

One long-term solution includes negotiating with developers to encourage them to dedicate a percentage of land for affordable housing options, or homes under $500,000.

“Can you set aside a certain percentage (of homes) for our nurses?” Gilliam said. “Even nurses, people forget that even though they make slightly more money, they still can’t afford homes.”

Developers say that affordable homes for around $350,000 are units with shared walls that people can own, Gilliam said.

“Workforce housing, I hear that all the time,” Councilman Ed DePriest said. “I hear teachers, firefighters, nurses, stuff like that. At the bottom line, can these people buy it? And the answer is no.”

Regional real estate agents on the CdAEDC board provide insight to the executive director on the most glaring issues in housing affordability.

“That’s one of the reasons we’re always fighting for businesses that pay higher wages,” Gilliam said. “Only 25% of our residents can afford homes.”

The CdAEDC board comprises members representing local cities, businesses and education.

JobsPlus is still the legal entity for the organization, which is doing business as CdAEDC, because Coeur d’Alene is more nationally recognizable, Gilliam said. The organization is a collaboration between interested parties, including in some cases, entities in Washington.

“We want to make sure that we’re working with eastern Washington,” Gilliam said. “It makes sense for us to work together because we have the same economy. Together we’ve decided we need to grow our existing industries.

Tuesday was the second in a series of budget workshops with the Hayden City Council and city staff. The council could decide to stop funding JobsPlus in a final budget draft, but the decision would have to go before council in an upcoming meeting. It hasn’t been posted on an agenda yet.