Economic Resilience

The economic health of Texoma is directly tied to its resilience. This is the regions ability to prevent, adjust, and/or recover from economic disruptions such as those caused by a natural disaster that upsets the daily functions of the local economy and strains it during the recovery process or through an economic downtown caused by external factors like the housing market crash of 2008 or internally through the loss of a major employer. For Texoma both types of economic distress are addressed either directly through this CEDS or collaboratively as part of the TCOG Emergency Planning Program.

The ability to address economic down turn not connected to natural disaster is woven into the economic development goals of this CEDS with one goal dedicated solely to addressing weakness that leave the region vulnerable to negative change in the economy. Goal 3 of the CEDS listed below addresses creating a resilient economy by aligning resiliency planning efforts across the region, diversification initiatives, and the promotion of equitable development. These three objectives address the main threats to Texoma’s economic resilience. Many of the planning efforts even those that are already aligned with regional goals overlook resiliency for economic health. Collaborating with economic development professionals, municipalities, counties, and various private sector stakeholders to address resiliency in their planning efforts is paramount. Diversification and equitable development represent weaknesses that when addressed create the largest amount of stability by developing the current workforce and creating jobs.

There is no economic threat harder to control and prevent than natural disaster. Texoma has weathered several disaster declarations in the last several years with little long-term effects to the economy. This is in no small part due to the TCOG’s Public Safety Department which operates the Emergency Planning Program as part of the Governor’s Division of Emergency Management. Through this program Public Safety Specialists at TCOG work with regional first responders, counties, municipalities, and policymakers to develop and maintain a regional response plan and a catastrophic communications plan.

Strengths & Challenges

A strengths, weakness, opportunities, and challenges or SWOC analysis was conducted with the Economic Development Corporations and business stakeholders across Texoma, as well as our CEDS Committee. The information gained through this process allows for a thorough assessment of the economic needs of the region and the assets available to meet those needs. The goals, objectives, and actions formed to encourage economic growth were created with information gathered and analyzed through this process.

Strengths & Opportunities

The positive attributes of the region revealed through the SWOC analysis are of two types, internal (strengths) and external (opportunities). Strengths are those desirable characteristics that Texoma possess to attract and stimulate economic growth, the opportunities are those influences outside of our region that may represent state or nationwide trends that can be leveraged to encourage growth in our own economy. Each of these play a vital role in the improvement of the regional economy. Our strengths are an assessment of our assets that can be built upon and leveraged to spark more growth, fortify our weakness, and improve our resilience. The opportunities available when assessed lead to strategic planning efforts used to unify the region behind common goals and a common purpose.

Strengths

The overwhelming consensus from input collected by economic development stakeholders across Texoma revealed that the regions location is its biggest strength. There are many aspects that are encompassed when considering the benefits of Texoma’s location. The location of interstate highway 35 connecting Dallas to Oklahoma City, highway 75 runs through the heart of the densely populated Grayson County and highway 82 runs east to west across each of the 3 counties in Texoma. The southbound highways allow for easy access to the Dallas metroplex making Texoma a gateway to this area. It allows residents to benefit from the close proximity of this area while maintaining the slower more relaxed atmosphere of Texoma life. This life style is increased by the areas access to scenic Lake Texoma and its many amenities. Residents have the benefit of being near hubs of commerce while enjoying the beauty and recreation available from Texoma’s many natural resources.

Texoma is also uniquely positioned for growth. With the space to expand and affordable cost of living it is a great place for individuals and families to find increased quality of life and developers and entrepreneurs looking to grow and expand. Low crime rates, excellent schools, affordability, and a friendly, caring community are attracting new families into the area daily. Low taxes for individuals, families, and business alike are also give a major boost to the areas desirability. Enough cannot be said about the natural resources that not only boost the local economy but are the heart of the Texoman lifestyle providing weekend recreation through boating, fishing, and hunting, but also providing education through local AgriLife Extension programs, 4H, and FFA Clubs.

Opportunities

There is a growing trend across the nation of an increased demand for the creative industry to supply local craft food and beverages. Texoma has begun to leverage this trend by infusing the market with local flavor. Initiatives such as Texoma Craft Beverage Alliance utilize the talents of creative Texoma’s to create local favorites. There has been a surge of wineries, vineyards, breweries and distilleries across the region in the past 5 years. The trends for organic locally grown foods have also influenced Texoma and paired well with the surge in craft beverage entrepreneurs. The region is now home to fruit orchards, lavender and honey farms. This creates an amazing opportunity to combine the regions ability to attract tourism with its natural resources and allow that market to sample the original flavor of the area with its hand-crafted food and beverage.

Another consumer trend bolstering economic growth that also has the potential to attract new residents with the education and skill levels associated with discretionary income is one that emphasizes lifestyle amenities centered around vibrant hubs such as revitalized downtown areas. This trend compliments the growth of the creative industry and concentrates it. Downtown centers become community gathering spaces that combine arts and culture with dining and retail experiences. Small business is being reinvigorated as residents open eateries and boutiques, responding rapidly to the demand. Downtown areas across Texoma are seeing a resurgence that has just begun to be utilized and presenting an extraordinary opportunity for growth.

Weakenesses & Challenges

Weaknesses

Every community has room for improvement. The ability to analyze these weaknesses and create a plan of action for addressing them is the sign of a strong community. The challenges of today will be the triumphs of tomorrow and will strengthen our resilience to withstand economic threats in the future. For Texoma this means improving the low-skilled workforce and the asset poverty that exists in the region. Consistently across the various stakeholders surveyed improving the skills of the workforce in Texoma was a major concern. Texoma residents are hard workers and unemployment remains low but many lack the skills to retain employment at a living wage. This low skilled employment is the main cause of asset poverty, meaning that the average Texoman does not have enough assets to sustain themselves if unemployed for 3 months. Further complicating this problem is the inability to attract living wage jobs to the area because the workforce they need is not available.

Demographics for the area reinforce findings revealed through the 2016-2018 Texoma Needs Assessment: housing, transportation, and healthcare are 3 major threats to Texoma’s economic health. These same problems where consistently mentioned through the SWOC process as well because of their effects on the existing and available workforce. This was especially true of transportation. Many employers have found that unreliable transportation for their employees has a consistent and negative effect on their own production. The problem of transportation is only compounded when the rural nature of Texoma is taken into consideration. This can be even more obvious in areas such as Fannin County where most of its employed residents must commute outside of the county for employment and the majority of the unemployed do not have access to transportation to obtain employment.

Challenges

Factors that affect markets and /or trends from forces outside of our region must also be considered when assessing the economic health of the region. One such problem is the effect of changing demographics on the local economy. Culturally competent economic development methods will need to be developed as the population of Texoma sees a dramatic increase in the Hispanic residents and a decline in Non-Hispanic Whites. The importance of these changes is clarified when one considers cultural differences that may play a role in factors such as workforce development and educational attainment. With economic development, some characteristics need to be considered outside of a more clearly defined economic growth. Social problems that plague certain ethnic demographics will grow in scale with that demographic. Poverty is one such characteristic that has traditionally plagued minority populations at double the rates of non-minority groups. The lack of affordable housing, transportation, and healthcare impact more severely those workers with low wages near poverty income levels.

Another challenge to the region is the access to public and government funding sources. The political trend currently affecting policy and ultimately funding dollars results in dramatic cuts in government spending. This has potential repercussions for many of the programs once used to stimulate economic growth through grant awards that were often utilized for the hard and soft infrastructure needed for development. These government spending cuts are also being seen across the social safety net that many of the low income workers in our region have utilized to compensate their needs for which their income could not provide.

Strategies

Goals & Objectives

Goal 1: Create a Vibrant Regional Identity

• Objective 1: Market the region as a cohesive economy through the promotion of its creative industry and ecotourism
• Objective 2: Revitalize regional economic collaboration
• Objective 3: Create unified branding for the region
• Activity 1: Assess the feasibility and promote use of incubators to create an innovation ecosystem
• Activity 2: Facilitate workshops and create a regional forum to unify branding and leverage planning efforts
• Activity 3: Conduct regional collaborative efforts to address branding of Texoma

Goal 2: Create a Diverse and Healthy Regional Economy

• Objective 1: Improve business ecosystem
• Objective 2: Improve the Talent Supply and Education Pipeline for Workforce Development
• Objective 3: Engage and assist communities in Texoma with planning activities to prepare for growth, leverage assets, and increase funding for healthy local economies
• Activity 1: Facilitate the creation of regional projects that improve hard and soft infrastructure of the business ecosystem with a focus of increasing the skilled workforce
• Activity 2: Assist economic and workforce development professionals in mapping and assessing the school to workforce pipeline to develop planning efforts for its improvement
• Activity 3: Conduct workshops for local government, private, and nonprofit sectors to improve their planning abilities to enhance their efforts for addressing growth and funding projects

Goal 3: Create a Resilient Economy

• Objective 1: Align resiliency planning efforts across the regional
• Objective 2: Create diversification initiatives
• Objective 3: Promote equitable development
• Activity 1: Collaborate with economic development and emergency planning professionals to unify resiliency planning efforts across the region
• Activity 2: Collaborate with stakeholders for the formation of regional initiatives to promote economic diversification
• Activity 3: Assist in the creation of initiatives to promote equitable development to develop a skilled workforce, increase average earning potential, asset building in a culturally sensitive manner accounting for shifting regional demographics

Performance Measures

The Texoma Council of Governments will report CEDS performance measures on the GPRA form submitted to the EDA and will provide these figures on the TCOG Community & Economic Development Program website, www.texomaedd.org.

Number of Jobs Created and/or Retained in the Region

• Total employment in initial year
• Total employment in subsequent years
• Number of jobs retained as a Result of Federal Investments
• Number of Jobs Retained as a Result of Select State and Local Investment

Amount of Investment in the Region

• EDA sponsored investments
• Significant state and local investments

Business Formation and Expansion in the Region

• Total formations or expansion in initial year
• Total formation or expansion subsequent years

Workforce Development in the Region

• Number of people receiving job training in the region
• Number of people receiving training on economic development, soft infrastructure, or hard infrastructure at TCOG workshops
• Number of requests for assistance with data collection, data analysis, or data development in the region.

Changes in the Economic Environment of the Region

• Changes to taxes & fees, new incentives programs etc.