Birgit Klohs is the executive director of the Right Place Program, the economic development agency for the Grand Rapids area. The late Amway founder, Jay Van Andel, was the original patron for the program when Klohs founded it two decades ago. Returning the favor, Klohs is the chief cheerleader for developing a "life sciences" infrastructure in River City to support her patron's biggest legacy, the Van Andel Institute.
As regular readers know, we are a bit skeptical about Grand Rapids successfully competing against the Bay Area, Boston, Seattle, San Diego, and other contenders for the title of North America's bio-tech capital. We not even sure how Grand Rapids would displace Ann Arbor as top dog of Michigan's anemic Life Sciences Corridor. That said, we wish everyone well who wants to invest their money in local bio-tech. However, we don't think business ventures, especially risky ones like bio-tech that tend to move off to the coasts if successful, are any place for our tax dollars. What doesn't get lost in that will otherwise end up in a lot of wasted bricks and mortar, concrete, and asphalt in a misguided "if we build it, they will come" pipe dream.
But our tax dollars are exactly what it's going to take to make a go of turning River City into a bio-tech mecca. In a recent interview with the Business Review, Klohs made that plain. She said that the effort to support the life sciences in Grand Rapids requires a united front of political leaders (read "taxpayers"), economic development agencies (read "taxpayers"), the education community (read "taxpayers"), finance and capital markets (read "buyers of taxpayer-backed bonds"), and the developers and construction firms (who will happily take the money from the rest of this "united front" to build anything they want).
No mention of the entrepreneurs needed to create the bio-tech business ventures that are supposed to provide all these great jobs and fabulous wealth for Grand Rapids. Just a list of groups expected to pass around the existing wealth of taxpayers. Then again, what entrepreneur is going to get excited about a city where he'll be taxed to help others get into a business that can't get started on their own? Like I've said before, folks, whenever you here "bio-tech" from the locals these days, hang onto your wallets. Klohs has warned you.
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