Economic Development Self-Assessment Tool
The Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy (formerly known as CURP) has embarked upon an initiative to help cities, towns, and full service counties surmount the "deal breakers" within their control that have been working against their efforts to foster economic growth and opportunity...to enhance the power of local officials to affect positive change in policies and procedures and to better enable these communities to compete for critically needed private sector investment.Guided by input from a broad group of public and private sector partners from the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties to the National League of Cities and the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, our mission is to create a practical set of tools for local governments to better position themselves to attract industry, private investment, a sustainable tax base and high quality good-paying jobs.
Self-Assessment Tool
We have developed a secure and confidential online self-assessment tool for evaluating and interpreting a municipal jurisdiction's characteristics and processes directly linked to the factors affecting local investment. With over two hundred questions, this rigorous examination helps public officials explore their own potential “deal breakers” as well as their relative capacity to overcome them. Once the self-assessment is completed, it is analyzed by Dukakis Center staff and a comprehensive report is prepared that weighs each community's performance against the multi-jurisdictional database that the Dukakis Center is continuously expanding as more jurisdictions join the partnership. Local officials receive specific feedback in each assessment category, and they can then use the results as a reality check on their community's economic development strategy.
Ten Assessment Categories
1. Access to Customers/Markets
2. Concentration of Businesses & Services
3. Real Estate and Infrastructure
4. Labor Market Factors
5. Municipal Permit Processes
6. Community Quality of Life
7. Site Related Amenities
8. Business Incentives
9. Local Tax Rates
10. Access to Local Information
Click here for the Economic Development Self-Assessment Toolkit website.
For more information, contact:
Marc Horne, Research Associate
Dukakis Center
Click here to email.
Phone: (617) 373-7870.