Portland scorecard measures economic progress, setbacks

There are no simple conclusions from the latest assessment of Portland's economy.

The outlook in the city's annual economic scorecard shows numerous changes from last year — both good and bad — placing Portland behind peer cities in areas like job employment growth while retail sales grew.

The scorecard — produced by the Portland Community Chamber — ranks whether Portland is exceeding, keeping pace or lagging behind peer cities in Maine and across the country. This year, it showed changes in 16 of 31 categories from last year's survey that were split evenly between gains and losses.

"We haven't done a survey in the way that, say, Forbes does, to simplify the picture for Portland," says Chris Hall, acting CEO of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce. "It's a complicated mosaic."

This year's survey shows Portland dropping — from "exceeding" to "lagging" — in areas including regional employment growth, regional personal income growth, city population growth and airline passenger counts when compared with regional and national peers.

In contrast, all positive movements on this year's scorecard showed less drastic changes — moving from "keeping up" to "exceeding" — in areas including gross metro product growth, regional retail sales, rental affordability and regional population growth.

For Hall, the takeaway is: It could be worse.

"We are doing better than I would have expected after six years of a recession," Hall says.

Chris O'Neil, the Portland Community Chamber's government liaison, says he takes the scorecard with him throughout the year when speaking to city officials on policy matters.

"I don't think it's so much a bright spotlight for epiphany as it is a kind of speedometer or thermometer that allows us to — from year to year — measure where we stand," O'Neill says.

In the introduction to this year's report, PCC President Michael Bourque writes that "without hard data, economic planning relies too heavily on anecdote.

"That's not how any of us would run our business," Bourque continues, "and it's not healthy for our city, either."

Some of the categories have changed since the report started three years ago.

This year's report saw the addition of one category: crime rate. Another category — employment growth in key sectors, which was added last year — was split into two separate measures assessing employment growth in different areas.

That change showed mixed results. Regional job growth in the science and business fields (biomedical and life sciences, information technology and business and financial services) lagged behind peers while job growth in arts, entertainment, recreation and tourism excelled.

For another measure — regional patents issued — the move from "exceeding" to "lagging" was due to a change in the way the indicator is measured. Last year's scorecard tracked year-over-year growth in the number of patents issued in the region. This year, the measure took a two-year look at the ratio of patents per 1,000 residents, which showed greater Portland behind New England and the national benchmark regions.

Stepping back from specific metrics, Bourque says he hopes the survey bolsters the chamber's focus on work force development, which it intends to pursue through the public school system.

"There's this sense that there's a gap between the kind of work force we need and the kind of work force we have," Bourque says. "I think that's true. You have to start the pipeline somewhere and you start that by a simple internship or job shadowing experience."

Bourque says the chamber is talking with local education and government leaders about new ways the business community can support education.

"We're an important engine for southern Maine, but we want to make sure that that we have a well-balanced school system," Bourque says. "We want to make sure that when MaineMed brings in its next specialist or doctor who wants to live in the West End that they are excited about having their kids in Portland public schools."

The following categories lagged behind the national benchmark regions:

Regional employment growth
Regional private sector employment growth
Regional personal income growth
Value of city imports & exports per capita
City population growth
Housing affordability
City full value property tax rate
City property valuation
Total regional cost index
Regional venture capital investment
Regional patents issued
Airline passenger counts
Employment growth in key sectors — biomedical/life sciences, IT, business and financial services
Municipal general fund debt outstanding per capita
Municipal full-time equivalent employees per 1,000 population

Of these lagging categories, Portland showed the most change between this year and last year's scorecards in the following categories: