Mind the GAP
A highly efficient and successful government program helps small manufacturers improve their bottom lines and create high-paying jobs.
BY TOM MASON
In an era when Minnesota’s state government must be extra careful about how it spends our money (and when shouldn’t it be?), one program—the Growth Acceleration Program (GAP)—operates exactly in a way that helps manufacturers create quality jobs and improve local economies, without getting in their way.
A bipartisan creation of the 2007 Legislature, GAP is a grant that helps smaller manufacturers access specialized consultative assistance training, a service typically accessible only to larger companies with deeper pockets. Its terms enable any manufacturing company with 100 or fewer employees to receive a matching annual grant of up to $25,000.
Its popularity was never questioned. Working through Enterprise Minnesota, the $750,000 in grants was used in just nine months, covering 45 companies and creating some $1.6 million in value. On top of that, its stewardship of public money is equally impressive. Consider these aspects:
Skin in the game. Comedian Mitch Hedberg used to say, “When someone hands you a flier, it’s like they’re saying, ‘Here, you throw this away.’” Too many people and companies treat government giveaway programs the same way. They collect government programs and aid in the same way that kids at the State Fair used wander the grandstand filling their WCCO bags with brochures and coupons and trinkets. They didn’t need waterproofing in their basement, but the brochure was free, so they took it. Likewise, constituents frequently value free aid in proportion to the amount they paid for it. GAP’s requirement for a minimum 50 percent match by companies obliges companies to incorporate resources wisely.
No bureaucracy. Every dime expended for the program goes directly to the companies that are looking for help. No government agency nixes the program for “administration fees”—there is no small army of bureaucrats paid to manage (read: bog down) the program with rules, regulations and paperwork. Instead, it works through Enterprise Minnesota’s existing infrastructure, which combines a massive national network of 59 other regional consulting groups, while also receiving zero state funding.
The multiplier effect. State economists estimate that every new manufacturing job spins off two supporting jobs. And the whole state benefits: manufacturing is clearly the backbone of our global exports. Of the $24.2 billion in exported goods from Minnesota in 2006, manufactured goods accounted for 63 percent, or $15.2 billion. And the jobs pay more: the average annual wage per manufacturing employee in Minnesota is $48,915, almost 20 percent higher than the average Minnesota private sector employee.