This article originally appeared in Louisville Business First on September 13, 2024.

Today, everything, everyone, and every place is more connected than ever. Communities excelling in job growth, population growth, and a strong quality of life are working across county lines and embracing their region’s combined assets.  

Over the last 10 years, GLI has worked to encourage Greater Louisville to embrace regionalism. The Greater Louisville Partnership was created in 2014 with the goal of collaborating to create more combined assets to market and sell, and pool resources and advantages of all surrounding counties. Then and now, we recognize that every community in Greater Louisville benefits from one another. For example, Jefferson County leans on the booming bourbon industry in Nelson County just like Bullitt County utilizes Jefferson County’s logistics infrastructure.  

10 years ago, we knew regionalism was a best practice and now we are seeing the results in our own community.  In that time, our region has benefitted from investments from companies such as Consumer Cellular, Hogan Lovells, BlueOval SK, and Meta.  

The evidence of regionalism is no longer anecdotal. Look at Houston, which formed the Greater Houston Partnership in 1989 and represents 12 counties around the Metro area. Recognized as one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, the Houston area is now home to 26 Fortune 500 companies and 47 Fortune 1000 companies.  From 2013 – 2023, Houston added 543,700 new jobs according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Greater Louisville added 81,200 jobs in that same time frame. Similar success has been seen in other markets like Tulsa and even down the road in Lexington.  

It’s clear we are on the right track, but there is more work to do. We need more resources to tell the story of the collective assets that make Greater Louisville a great place to do business, more incentives that are critical in attracting these large opportunities, and new ideas that will energize our economy.  

As a regional economic development organization, GLI works to share our region’s story across the globe with the goal of bringing in leads that will find their home in one of the 15 counties in our region. Local governments then seal the deal by negotiating incentives and navigating the development process. We consistently hear that companies and business consultants are largely unaware of the competitive advantages, quality of life assets, and affordability we have to offer until they visit. That’s why unified, regional storytelling is critical.  Many people sharing the same message is more powerful than individuals sharing many different messages.  

Our region also must prioritize maintaining and improving a business-friendly climate. A company will not plant roots here unless there is a clear financial or operational benefit. GLI continues to advocate for the creation and expansion of competitive incentives that will bring high-paying jobs to the region. Our tax code is becoming more attractive thanks to the work of Kentucky and Indiana’s legislatures in reducing both state’s personal income tax, but we still have work to do to compete with surrounding states that rely on consumption-based models. Of course, access to skilled workforce is imperative. GLI will continue to work through both policy and programming to address barriers to work and leverage our nationally recognized Live in Lou talent attraction initiative to help companies fill their in-demand jobs. 

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom, president and CEO, GLI

In this next decade, we also need to embrace the changes that often come with growth and dare to try new things. New ventures on the county level like Mayor Greenberg’s Louisville Economic Development Alliance have the potential to create new opportunities for business attraction by preparing land and developing incentives that will create new selling points in Jefferson County. We should also build on successful programs like the Kentucky Product Development Initiative (KPDI) and Indiana’s Regional Economic Acceleration & Development Initiative (READI) to help speed up the timeline for projects and leverage opportunities across all 15 counties in our region.  

As I reflect on a decade of regionalism, there is a lot to celebrate but even more to do. We have the momentum and the strategy to grow faster than ever before by going all in on regionalism and making the investments needed to sustain economic growth.   

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom is the president and CEO of Greater Louisville Inc.