Peggy Neely is no stranger to attracting businesses to Phoenix. During her time on the city council, Neely was a strong leader in job creation, attracting regional and national headquarters to Phoenix including companies such as Republic Services, Mayo Clinic Hospital, W.L. Gore and Associates, American Express, Axway, APL, Ryan Companies, and Penske Automotive Group/Chauncey Ranch Auto Boutique. These businesses have created thousands of jobs in Phoenix.“Peggy Neely is the ‘jobs candidate.’ When it comes to breadth and depth of experience in attracting jobs or boosting economic recovery, Peggy is the best candidate on the ballot,” said Daniel W. “Buzz” Gosnell, President, Woodbine Southwest Corporation. “Her track record proves that she has what it takes to bring businesses to Phoenix, restore local jobs and position our city for economic prosperity.”
During her time on council, Neely reached out to business owners on a regular basis making sure that the city is a help – not a hindrance to doing business. In addition to successes in attracting new businesses, she also helped existing and small businesses expand.
“Peggy is a competitive and caring person. When we were looking to relocate our corporate office and national customer service center, Peggy was front and center in advocating for Phoenix. In the end, she was instrumental in making certain that we landed in Phoenix,” said Tod Holmes, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Republic Services, Inc. “She understands the importance of expanding the job base here in Phoenix and importantly, she knows what it takes to create jobs and the role of city government to work with businesses. Equally important, she continues to be an advocate for the business community as we continue to work to add more jobs in the Phoenix market.”
Neely launched a comprehensive jobs plan as part of her vision of the “Phoenix We Want.” She explained, “Phoenix should no longer accept a back seat in the area of public policy. It must lead. It must lead in quality economic development focused on high income jobs that are as diverse as our city. The most critical need is a plan to diversify our jobs base. We can’t rely on construction alone to fuel our future. Instead, we must help existing businesses expand and then work with them to leverage new relationships with companies looking to relocate.”
Neely’s Jobs Plan
Build a Business Reputation – We should build a world reputation in one or more business sectors. In addition, we should cluster economic development efforts on growing areas such as biomedical, healthcare, solar, and other industries to diversify our economy.
Attract high-wage employers – Develop policy and tools to attract high-wage employers to invest in Arizona. Efforts such as a uniform sales tax could benefit businesses and reduce bureaucracy that limits their ability to expand.
Develop each area to its full potential – I believe in growth with a purpose, but not growth for growth’s sake. Just as the village concept serves our diverse planning needs, we must create a similar approach for business development that clearly outlines the businesses and opportunities we agree would best fit each area of the city.
Expand our tourism opportunities – While downtown is still an important destination, we must also promote the rest of Phoenix as a tourism attraction rich in recreation amenities like golf, hiking, biking, parks, soccer, world-class resorts, and breathtaking open space.
Protect key revenue generators – We must continue to support our key sources of revenue such as Sky Harbor Airport. In addition, we cannot stand idly by as other states seek to lure our spring training baseball teams from Phoenix. They generate much-needed annual revenue that cannot easily be replaced.
Transform Phoenix into a major industrial and shipping hub – Phoenix should spearhead a regional taskforce to foster a Mexican deep water port alternative to Los Angeles allowing goods to be shipped to Phoenix for distribution across the country. Mexico is Arizona’s number one trading partner – efforts such as this and others should be implemented to strengthen that relationship.
Make Phoenix business friendly – All City of Phoenix departments should be customer oriented to help citizens and businesses alike. A Jobs Task Force could meet quarterly with business and development leaders to hear their concerns and ideas about how to make Phoenix more business friendly.
Emphasize shopping in Phoenix – I will work with business owners and the leaders of the “shop local” efforts to ensure that residents understand the added value of spending their money in the city.
Attract venture capital and foreign investment to Phoenix – I want to develop a plan to encourage business beyond the incubation stage by finding innovative ways to lure more venture capital to our community.
Source: Peggy Neely for Phoenix Mayor
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