Snohomish Count Business Journal
Published: Thursday, December 29, 2011

It seems the rich-should-pay-their-fair-share proponents are getting lots of attention these days as economic malaise continues into a new year.

Ending what some refer to as “corporate welfare” sounds good. But most tax breaks are designed to create incentives to people and corporations with taxable income to do things in the public interest. Some are pork and need attention. When tinkering with tax breaks, though, one needs to be very discerning or a baby might be thrown out with the bath water.

A great deal of low-income and affordable apartment housing built in the past 20 years would not be were it not for an IRS code that allocates tax credits to profitable corporations in exchange for building apartments laid with restrictions on how much they can charge for rent.

Commonly referred to as the tax credit program, the developer-owner who receives the tax credits must serve families and individuals considered poor or vulnerable — usually those earning less than 60 percent of the median household income in the county where the housing is built. It’s been a remarkably efficient way to deliver affordable housing to millions of Americans and has all but replaced the failed public tenement housing model of the 1960s and 1970s that put the government directly into the housing and construction business, leaving cities with blocks of highly concentrated areas of urban blight.

The tax credit’s simplicity and efficiency is what makes it work so well: The federal government budgets a certain dollar amount of tax credits and distributes them to the states based on their population. The states then push the tax credits out through an organized system that measures numerous factors. Developers and housing providers compete for the tax credits. They, in turn, usually sell the tax credits at a discount to profitable corporations and use the cash they raise to build.

Odds are you drive by one of these apartment complexes in your daily travels and probably have no idea it is low-income housing. Anyone is eligible to rent a unit so long as they can verify their income under the thresholds. No government red tape, no long waiting period for the individuals and families of modest or low income.

But little of this affordable product is being built right now because the market for tax credits dried up when the recession hit corporate bottom lines. Banks were major purchasers of tax credits, for example. Few are profitable today. Corporations that are profitable seem to be holding onto their cash until they can gauge the impact of the European debt crisis and the 2012 political election cycle in the U.S.

Thoughtful examination of every tax break delivered to corporations often spins out similarly. The best forms of tax incentives are geared to attract entrepreneurs and corporations to locate in your community and stay so that the jobs they create benefit your citizens. Communities that do this tend to see higher employment.

Tinkering too much with corporate tax credits and incentives is delicate business and fraught with unintended consequences if not done thoughtfully.

Thousands of people living in affordable housing in our region are depending on those in leadership positions to pay attention to the relationship between corporate profits and affordable housing under a program that has been working effectively for almost two decades. Let’s hope they keep that in mind.

Tom Hoban is co-owner of Everett-based Coast group of commercial real estate companies. Contact him at tomhoban@coastmgt.com or 425-339-3638.

Published: Thursday, December 1, 2011

According to Francisco Blanch, head of commodities with Bank of America, the U.S. was the single largest contributor to the global oil supply last year, with a net of 395,000 barrels per day. Most of the new production was coming out of North Dakota’s shale oil fields, but other domestic sources are proving strong as well.

An innovative process called hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” — breaking rocks with jets of water — has been a breakthrough technology to release oil from huge shale reserves throughout the U.S.

This is just one of the reasons that a new wave of optimism is building around the U.S. economy and reminding us all of its unbelievable resilience. There are others.

Chinese labor rates boomed in the past 10 years and are no longer a bargain compared to the costs of some areas of the U.S., most notably the right-to-work states in the American South. Productivity-adjusted wages will narrow even more between the U.S. and China, reports The Telegraph, a British publication.

“Costs to do business overseas, including shipping, reliability issues, technology piracy and others are shifting the advantage back to the U.S.,” The Telegraph concludes.

There’s real evidence of this change. Volkswagen and Korean electronics maker Samsung have begun investing in production plants in the U.S. Big American companies like Intel, GM, Caterpillar and others are opting to stay home rather than invest abroad. Boeing is bringing more of its 787 production chain back into the U.S. and simultaneously opening a second production plant in South Carolina, where skilled labor and a wage environment beat the overseas alternatives.

Another advantage we possess is that our population is still growing. Americans have a fertility rate above 2.0. Countries facing demographic decay under that rate include Japan, China, Korea, Germany, Italy and even Russia. We will eventually outgrow our burdensome federal debt obligations as more and more young Americans become productive and older citizens who depend on them die. The baby boomer bubble in the U.S. is an anomaly, not a permanent situation. Over the next 10 years, the boomers’ children — the echo boomers — will be in the workforce in larger numbers and replace them in positions of leadership and influence.

The U.S. still remains the country with the most top universities, spawning innovation at a higher level than anywhere else in the world. We have a common language and very little internal strife.

We are still the center of venture capital in the world and have robust transportation systems.

While Mexico presents some problems, most countries could only wish for a neighbor as resource-laden and friendly as Canada.

Often underappreciated, American farmers are so efficient that we use only 1 percent of our population to feed ourselves and still have enough to be a net exporter to feed the rest of the world.

Our still-dominant sea power position and military bases in strategic locations means we control nearly every shipping lane on the globe.

These give us several advantages over Europe, Russia and China, making us still the safest big country in which to do business in the world. Once our president — no matter who he or she is — stops trying to tinker with a good thing, corporations will stop hoarding cash and banks will lend again. Their behavior is what we should expect when there’s uncertainty being created through political words and actions.

“This does not imply a healthy U.S. recovery,” reports The Telegraph, however. China needs to deflate its credit bubble and the Western economies still need to purge debt. That will take some time.

America’s greatest advantage, though, is that most of the world is better off when America is healthy. That and a still-strong hand suggest the 21st century may be American after all, just like the last.

Tom Hoban is co-owner of Everett-based Coast group of commercial real estate companies. Contact him at tomhoban@coastmgt.com or 425-339-3638.

Published: Thursday, October 27, 2011

Snohomish County Business Journal

Macro economic and political forces continue to mix together into an usual concoction this summer, making it hard for profitable corporations to get a read on the future and tempt them to pull cash off of the sidelines and into expansion and growth. Recovery from the Great Recession has been anemic as a result.

Meanwhile, venture capitalists are beginning to make moves right now, signaling the possibility that a meaningful recovery could be ahead. The companies they are backing are mostly technology concepts. Most of these concepts are software or processes that drive more efficiency into everything we do. It’s an encouraging sign, but comes with a twist.

Software and technology of tomorrow will be held in what is dubbed “the cloud.” Instead of our hand-held devices and computers holding the brains of the software application we load and use, a bank of servers and supercomputers held by companies entering this space, such as Amazon.com, will hold them all and effectively beam what we want back and forth to our devices. You won’t know any difference in certain respects.

Your smartphone, iPad or computer, for example, will still have icons on it. But you will be able to do many more things on them because you don’t have to buy a specific application, download it and then perform its function. The cloud will allow you to reach in and pay for only what you use when you use it and literally every application and function in the world will be available to anyone with a hand-held device or personal computer.

Ultimately, the massive amount of technology that can be housed in the cloud and used by businesses and consumers will drive a new wave of efficiency into the American economy that may exceed what Microsoft did for us in the post-recession era of the early 2000s. Venture capitalists are backing the early stage concepts that should be the winners in that space.

The bad news is that, unlike the roughly 24-month jobless recovery period after the last much shorter recession, the efficiencies coming our way through the cloud and new emerging technologies inside it will be so significant that many economists are anticipating the longest jobless recovery in modern history. Dr. Sam Chandan, an economist and adviser to the U.S. Treasury, predicted in May as much as a 48-month recovery without significant job growth.

Housing could see a boost from a healthier lending climate regardless of what happens in the cloud. But buyers need jobs. Housing will continue to see lower transaction volume as any real sustainable demand requires higher employment. This time, higher employment may be further off thanks to something called the cloud.

Tom Hoban is co-owner of Everett-based Coast group of commercial real estate companies. Contact him at tomhoban@coastmgt.com or 425-339-3638.
 

Published: Thursday, September 29, 2011

Snohomish County Business Journal

Several months ago, I queried a number of my colleagues around the country to construct a mosaic of the ideal commercial real estate salesperson. What started out as an earnest effort to find the traits, habits and characteristics that could be measured and then sought out in my own recruiting efforts revealed some rather odd and downright humorous outcomes. With the economy now entering its fourth year of this mess, it’s time for a laugh.

One needs to understand that commercial real estate sales people operate in an eat-what-you-kill environment. No base salary, really no boss in the traditional sense. Just heart, soul, 24 hours in a day, a world of properties attached to owners and tenants to serve and then earn a commission at the point of a transaction. You sell something, you eat. You don’t, you starve. It’s unlike sales in almost every other industry where a base salary and bonus are the norm.

The most common characteristic I found was a sense of self-reliance and hunger to compete. Said a colleague who owns a sizable firm in Chicago: “Male or female, they have to like to compete. I like athletes … football, soccer, basketball, golf.” Said another in Idaho: “My best salespeople have had a sports background and have been the ones that come off the bench. They know what success looks like, but have a chip on their shoulder. I give them the platform to go prove themselves a winner in real estate sales if the sports stuff couldn’t do it for them.”

The hunger to succeed comes from other places, too. The managing director of a firm in Indiana pointed out that her best salespeople have one common trait: a mortgage payment. “They’re committed to my market. It’s a monthly reminder that they need to squeeze out commissions somewhere to crack that nut.”

Other quirky characteristics seem to make up some. “No visible tattoos,” said a colleague in Southern California. “But it’s not a deal killer. I’m a USC grad. If a salesman had one that said ‘Beat UCLA,’ I might hire him-her on the spot.”

“I like the team captain or head-of-the-family types,” said another. “Male or female, they have to be willing to defend their teammates or brood. Working on behalf of a client sometimes feels like that. So I want the ones who are willing to stick their nose into a mess and sort it out.”

“I like hunters,” said the owner of a firm in Alabama. “The natural desire to outthink situations, adjust on the fly and measure success in pounds of meat translates very nicely to commercial real estate sales.”

“My preference is to hire geeks,” said the owner of a mid-sized firm in Seattle. “Today’s technology tools have moved to the point where the computer drives about 80 percent of communication.”

So there you have it. The ideal commercial Realtor is a scrappy, thoughtfully tattooed, slightly geeky hunter who played sports in his or her youth and has a mortgage payment.

Tom Hoban is co-owner of Everett-based Coast group of commercial real estate companies. Contact him at tomhoban@coastmgt.com or 425-339-3638.
 

Published: Thursday, September 1, 2011

Snohomish County Business Journal

After Kimberly-Clark announced this spring that it was putting its Everett mill up for sale, members of the community began worrying about what that might mean. Speculation began about what other uses that site could support and it quickly became a real estate topic.

From purely a real-estate standpoint, it’s a very interesting site on a lot of levels because it sits on Everett’s front porch with immediate connectivity to downtown Everett’s waterfront. Last month’s column examined it from that narrow point of view.

From a broader standpoint, Kimberly-Clark and its employees have been big contributors to the community, so nearly everyone seems to feel some stake in the outcome of this sale and is speculating on what it might mean to them. Facts are few and the discussion is raw at this stage. It’s a difficult time on Everett’s waterfront right now.

To say that the community is split over the discussion is an understatement, though. Passionate and angry might describe the emails and calls from a few Kimberly-Clark employees who read last month’s column. They are understandably concerned right now and didn’t like the subject of the sale being talked about at all. Some were very helpful, though. One Kimberly-Clark employee who asked to remain anonymous made clear that the Everett mill is profitable and speculation on its demise premature. That, of course, is a relief to us all.

Passionate and angry might also describe those who were offended when city leaders referred to their point of view in a public meeting as “elitist.” We may not like it, these folks say, but some contingency planning might be timely given the recent history of mills in Everett and misinformation around the motives of the sale. Planning ahead today might ensure jobs remain there without interruption.

The good news is that everyone wants jobs. If pulp and paper remains viable, then that ought to continue for as long as possible. The other good news is that unlike other former mill sites, that location offers a particularly appealing mix of utilities, transportation connectivity and other features that could make it an ideal industrial and mixed-use jobs center for generations.

If redevelopment were necessary, planning ahead might help would-be users to see what their options are to bring in jobs. Lower-rise buildings and public access in and around industrial, light industrial and other mixed uses fits the site best and brings other adjacent benefits to downtown Everett, as last month’s column noted.

Kimberly-Clark and its employees have been an integral and visible part of Everett for years. The news of the Everett mill being for sale is hard on some of them and concerning for others. In such unsettled times, local leaders would do well to make an affirmative statement about the community’s support for them in hopes that mill operations would last as long as they are viable there.

But contingency planning now would be reassuring as well, demonstrating a commitment to that area as a jobs center for generations to come. There’s nothing elitist about fighting for jobs, explained one reader. On that, we can all agree.

“Coast is proud to be the property manager at the new Husky Village at  the U of Washington Bothell Campus”

Published: Wednesday, August 17, 2011

By Alejandro Dominguez, Herald Writer

BOTHELL — There is still some work to be done at Husky Village Student Housing. Contractors are finishing the main office and there are plans to add a deck by the pond behind the eight-building apartment complex.

Still, some apartments were ready to be shown last week to potential students interested in living at the newest acquisition by the University of Washington’s Bothell campus.

Tyler Lenderman and his mother toured a three-bedroom apartment. The place was mostly empty except for two couches, some tables and three beds in two different rooms.

The 869-square-foot apartment impressed Lenderman, 18, who is coming from Roy, south of Tacoma, and has been apartment-hunting in the area for several days.

At the moment, Husky Village seems like his best option. Other apartments are in the same price range, but they don’t come close to having the number of amenities Husky Village has, he said.

“It is better than I expected,” Tyler Lenderman said. “There is nothing that compares to this quality.”

This fall, the campus expects to officially open its 240-unit apartment complex in hopes of attracting more students who live outside driving distance and increase the student life on the campus. Husky Village, located at 8612 Beardslee Blvd., will triple the amount of student housing on campus.

The $10.7 million property was bought last April and it’s undergoing $1.5 million in renovations that include repainting, refurbishing and adding offices for student staff, university spokesman Richard Penny said.

“We believe the best college experience and most learning happens where the student is immersed in campus life,” he said.

The purchase and renovations will be paid entirely by lease payments from the students. Rents range from $2,085 to $4,170 per quarter depending on the number of students living in an apartment.

The school decided to buy the property because it was cheaper than building new housing, Penny said.

Before, the school leased two different buildings for student housing. Those could only hold a total of 70 students. The school has ended the lease agreement with those properties, which were located two blocks off campus, Penny said.

All current work should be completed by September, in time for the start of classes. As of last week, the school had a waiting list for students wanting to live at Husky Village, Penny said.

Last week, high school students and parents interested in applying to UW Bothell toured the campus and Husky Village.

“I really like it has a lot of room. It’s the biggest I have seen,” said Anna Smith, 17, of Carlsbad, Calif., who has visited other campuses.

For Danyelle Loucks, of Renton, the best thing about the apartments is that they would not be as crowded as student dorms.

Proximity to the school and safe housing were two things that attracted Jaden, 17, and her dad, Don Duffy, who are both from Bellingham.

Still, space was the thing that impressed Don Duffy the most.

“I have not seen housing like that and I was a professor for 39 years,” Don Duffy said.

Alejandro Dominguez: 425-339-3422; adominguez@heraldnet.com.

Published: Thursday, July 28, 2011

By Tom Hoban
Realty Markets

When the Kimberly Clark Corp. announced in March that it was selling its Everett mill, it kicked off a discussion in the business and development community around what might happen in its place. A buyer is apparently identified, but Kimberly Clark will not offer any details. Any process to sell the plant would take months, say experts, and a buyer might not be able to make that mill pencil any better than can Kimberly Clark. In real estate terms, the Kimberly Clark plant and the land under it are still “in play.”

The pattern with Everett’s mills is pretty clear at this point: Labor, power and other costs eventually make producing pulp and paper-based products too expensive here and the mills shut down. One other pattern is also clear: Downtown Everett has never quite reached its potential and one reason for that is its view lines and waterfront access are blocked by the Kimberly Clark mill. The opportunity to step in with an option to purchase the land and control the future on Everett’s front porch sits before citizens on a silver platter.

However, there seem to be two camps somewhat at odds about what Everett should be and how it should get there, triggered by the sale of the mill. Mayor Ray Stephanson will have no part in any sort of discussion around other uses there, referring to such talk as “elitist” in an Everett City Council meeting shortly after the announcement. So any vision for Everett and its downtown connection to the waterfront and opening view lines to stimulate more development will have to come from elsewhere.

Those in the other camp see a two-plus-two-equals-five scenario around the mill. Planning for the next use would be about replacement jobs and removing the smokestack and taller buildings on the site to open up view lines and pedestrian access to the waterfront, thereby stimulating more activity in downtown where the zoning, infrastructure and densities want it to be.

Unlike Everett’s two big shovel-ready projects — Port Gardner Wharf and Riverfront — the Kimberly Clark mill site has unique water, sewer and power support, making it an appealing place for a variety of uses along the rail line and access roads. Like areas of Redmond or Bothell, bringing in jobs stimulates retail and residential areas around it.

The mill site is large enough create far more jobs than the 600-plus there today and, if planned properly, would offer public access on a quiet, family-friendly, calm, inner bay. The connectivity to downtown is what makes it particularly special. Height limits and public access would have to be part of any sort of redevelopment. A complicated and probably costly industrial clean-up effort would be the trade off.

Not since The Navy coming to town in the 1980s has Everett proven it can harness the collective energy of citizens, business leaders and government for a common cause. Providence Hospital had to swim against the local current for a long time, so it doesn’t count. Public and private benefits to controlling what happens next at the Kimberly Clark site are the kind of thing that requires everyone coming together.

City government is taking a pass on this one, says Everett’s mayor. So this movement will have to come from somewhere else. But the opportunity to act is now. Kimberly Clark’s For Sale sign created it.

Tom Hoban is co-owner of Everett-based Coast group of commercial real estate companies. Contact him at tomhoban@coastmgt.com or 425-339-3638.

Published: Thursday, June 30, 2011

By Tom Hoban
Realty Markets

Washington State University’s recent announcement that it is opening in Everett comes on the heels of Providence Regional Medical Center’s new medical tower opening, helping boost momentum in the north end of town.

Investors are paying attention. Colleges do things in cities that can change them forever. How WSU does in Everett will say as much about Everett as a community as it does about WSU and that is what has piqued investor interest.

Backed by a legislative mandate, WSU will take over a program run by Everett Community College that serves about 500 students through a consortium of five other public and two private four-year universities and colleges. It’s a modest start. But it is significant for what it could become.

That’s because WSU is the big time. The Wall Street Journal ranks WSU as one of the top 25 “recruiter picks” in the nation. It packs a strong reputation as a research-level institution. In the game of attracting and retaining the best and brightest high school graduates, brand matters.

On raw numbers, it looks like a good business decision for WSU. Everett’s historic mill-town roots and labor-intensive Boeing assembly line need mostly skilled labor. None of the mission-backed communities that settled in the West and seeded colleges and universities planted deep roots in the north Puget Sound. So Everett never got a Gonzaga or a Pacific Lutheran University of its own. As a result, Snohomish County remains one of the most populated counties in the country without a four-year college or university within its boundaries.

Most of Snohomish County’s local school districts are strong, though, helping the region produce a good pool of high-achieving high school graduates every year. From a pure supply and demand standpoint, WSU choosing to locate where there’s an abundance of potential customers makes sense.

This is where the brand piece comes in. Colleges and universities earn their brand in academia by delivering the goods to students and then winning high rankings with recruiters. While there can be many factors that determine where a high school graduate might go to college, the top students from the best high schools have scholarship offers and acceptance letters that give them lots of choices. They tend to be the ones who draw to the top-brand colleges and universities.

The strength of the WSU brand with this pool of future leaders can be tested by examining the choices they make. One good place to apply this test is local college prep high schools. In that regard, WSU is doing very well. For the first time in its roughly 20-year history, Archbishop Murphy High School — the largest college prep school in Snohomish County and one of the state’s top high schools — is sending more of this year’s graduating class to Washington State University than any other college or university.

The real prize for Everett is what happens after the students graduate from college. Colleges incubate and innovate ideas, spawn new businesses, attract angel investors, house professors and invent processes that support existing businesses. Graduates from top colleges push optimism, energy and ambition into the communities where they find work and choose to live. It’s just a beginning. But if WSU thrives in Everett, it may very well change the city in ways not contemplated today.

Everett will have to earn those benefits, though. Success of a college in any town is a two-way street. How WSU fares in Everett will depend on how the private sector and local community step in and support it and how it initially feathers its goals with the other colleges and universities that built the base of students it now has the privilege of serving.

That places a challenge in front of Everett: One of the best universities in the nation just showed up. Now the community needs to prove it is worthy by helping it succeed in Everett.

Tom Hoban is co-owner of Everett-based Coast group of commercial real estate companies. Contact him at tomhoban@coastmgt.com or 425-339-3638.

Published: Thursday, June 2, 2011

By Tom Hoban

Realty Markets

Last month, CNNMoney.com reported that home ownership for Americans under the age of 35 reached a new 16-year low. David Harris, a real estate investment trust analyst with Gleacher & Co. in New York, said, “Some people refer to it as a propensity to rent but in reality, it’s an aversion to buy,” explaining this trend in the simplest of terms.

At the same time, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that rental vacancies fell to 9.7 percent in the first quarter of this year from 10.6 percent a year ago, making it clear that as homeownership drops it is apartments and rental properties that are benefitting. While the economy chugs along slowly and without definition, apartment rentals are suddenly a pretty flower in an otherwise still relatively dull real estate landscape.

The rental market is not all roses, though. A 9.7 percent vacancy rate for apartment product is still high by normal standards. But it’s a trend in the right direction for investors and owners of rental properties linked to a broader conversation about the psyche of Americans during the housing crisis.

So many younger Americans were beat up by their experience with homeownership or watching what happened to their parents during the housing crisis that their view of the virtues of homeownership has been redefined for a long time. This new group of renters isn’t looking just exclusively at apartments and duplexes, though. Some still need a single-family home in a single-family neighborhood.

Called by industry insiders the “shadow market,” investors are gobbling up foreclosed-upon houses or unsold homes and renting them out in neighborhoods where historically almost all of the homes were owner-occupied.

As more and more homes are thrown into this new rental pool, the flavor of our neighborhoods could be affected as well. Renters may see their home very differently than homeowners. For them, a home will be a place to live only. Their nest egg and American dream will be grown somewhere else. They will be more mobile — because they can act on a desire to move without having to put their home up for sale and buy another. They’ll look for more technology and efficiency in the homes they rent because competition for their rent checks will drive landlords to compete for their attention with things that matter more to this under-35 set.

The impact will be subtle and odd in some ways, too. There will be little warning that your neighbor might be moving. No for sale sign on a neighbor’s home as you are out taking an evening walk. One month, the people living in that house are gone and another family slides into their place.

In your casual neighbor-to-neighbor conversation, these renters will feel like they, not you, have the housing market figured out. They’ll view themselves as the wiser ones in the neighborhood because they chose to rent while you are burdened with ownership. To them, the American Dream is flip-flopped, changing the old tag line to a new one: “Why buy when you can rent?”

Tom Hoban is co-owner of Everett-based Coast group of commercial real estate companies. Contact him at tomhoban@coastmgt.com or 425-339-3638.

Published: Thursday, April 28, 2011

Wanted: Business-literate political candidates

By Tom Hoban
Realty Markets

We are fortunate to live in a democracy where people have the privilege of voting and selecting their leaders. This year, considered an off-election year, the stakes could not be higher. Washington’s Legislature wrangled with a $5.1 billion deficit linked to a drop in tax receipts after a run of spending from 2004 until now that increased the size of state government by more than 33 percent, creating legions of people dependent on that level of spending to continue. In an effort to balance the budget, the risks to damaging a fragile economy and crippling job creation loom large. Real estate investors and homeowners have a lot to be paying attention to in Olympia right now.

Examine the resumes of many of our local elected leaders and it’s easy to see how we got into this position but not so easy to see how we are going to fix it. While most are well intended, it is remarkable how few of them have any real connection to business and how it operates to know how jobs are created. Too many understand only the labor side or, at best, have a general or academic understanding of how business works. That does not make them skilled at knowing how jobs are created.

An intimate understanding of competitive forces, being able to measure risk and returns and knowing how labor fits into that is the domain of those who have owned, created or invested in business. Jobs creation comes from creating value and sustaining it in a competitive world where risk is measured every day. Such skill sets and understandings are in high demand as politicians pull levers that could push unemployment above the corrosive 10 percent mark where have been for almost two years now.

Two-time gubernatorial candidate, Dino Rossi, a successful businessman himself, saw this fiscal train wreck coming. In the weeks leading up to the November 2008 election, he warned voters we would face a $5 billion deficit if the status quo in Olympia didn’t change. That he was right is not the point. Having a clearer connection to the taxpayer and business community is where Rossi and other business-literate candidates come to such discussions in the first place. Business creates jobs and generates tax revenues. He knew what was happening to business long before their tax payments were mailed in. Of course, voters in 2008 rewarded the incumbent governor, who told us we had a surplus and all was well. Rossi went back to creating jobs in the private sector, owning the satisfaction of being right, but not being in Olympia where he could deploy those skills sets for the benefit of all Washingtonians. It’s a missed opportunity when examined through today’s lens.

While we are all sympathetic to citizens who have been whipsawed by dependencies on government that were created and now must be destroyed, business owners have been through much more difficult budget challenges than a $5.1 billion hole the state is dealing with and would wish for such an easy task. And before skeptical readers dismiss business-literate folks as profiteers and selfish in nature, rethink the premise of that argument: Business people, more than nearly anyone, know that a textured and healthy community is the only place fertile enough for them to do business and attract good employees so that they can beat the competition. Many know this so well that they will move to where they can find such a place if the one they are in becomes undesirable.

The trouble with business-literate candidates is that they often have to leave the noble pursuit of keeping us employed to run for and then serve in an elected seat of government. Organizations like Enterprise Washington (www.enterprisewashington.org) and others who know politics can help and assist one who might answer the call. But for all business-literate candidates, serving in public office starts with a sense of duty and a calling to serve. Given today’s reality, the need for business leaders to answer that call may be as great as it’s been in years.

Tom Hoban is co-owner of Everett-based Coast group of commercial real estate companies. Contact him at tomhoban@coastmgt.com or 425-339-3638.