End of Year and excellent report going forward

This letter is from the Tampa Bay Partnership. There is a link in it for the Regional Economic Scorecard. We look better than most areas in the state and I think there is good hope for the future:

Regional Economic Scorecard:

Scorecard Shows Challenges, Positive Indicators

Dear Tampa Bay Partnership Investors:

This morning we released to the media our findings from the Fall 2008 Edition of the Regional Economic Scorecard. The scorecard is an objective tool to measure our community's economic performance and benchmark ourselves against other communities.

While the overall indicators remain down, there are bright signs that the region may be turning a corner including:

• Tampa Bay was one of only two regions measured that are experiencing positive growth in housing permit activity.
• Tampa Bay's overall ranking for Income and Productivity improved with wage growth, household income, and per capita income all contributing to the increase.
• In the Innovation category, the ranking for patents improved.
• Of the 25 indicators traced in the Scorecard, 19 could be updated with new data in this edition. Of those 19 updated indicators, eight rankings remained unchanged, six improved, and five declined. There was real progress from the previous Scorecard which had the same number of updated indicators, where only two rankings improved, eight declined and nine remained unchanged.

Overall, Tampa Bay's performance in this Scorecard reflected what has officially become a statewide recession. We still have challenges to face including:

• The Tampa Bay region lost more than 33,500 jobs in the year that separates the third quarter of 2008 from the third quarter of 2007.
• In the Transportation category, data for our region showed improvement for every indicator except Vehicle Miles Traveled Per Capita, a measure of sprawl. Tampa Bay's rankings fell despite these improvements because the comparison regions made greater improvements.

This environment calls for a completely new way of looking at our challenges and addressing them. We will be officially introducing our new three-year strategic plan, "A Model for Prosperity," at our Annual Meeting & Community Update which will be held this Friday, November 21, 2008 at the Sheraton Tampa Riverwalk Hotel. We have over 400 leaders registered for this event and are officially SOLD OUT.

As we move forward, we need your help in this important work. To be successful, the outcomes of our future must be productive, inclusive and sustainable. It is critical that we have as many leaders around the table as possible to pool our collective energy to address the challenges and opportunities facing our region.

Sincerely,

Stuart Rogel
President & CEO