There is virtual unanimity that putting people back to work is critical to pulling Northwest Georgia out of the recession. How to create those jobs and what they should be remain the real questions to be answered.

The Rome-News-Tribune hosted Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond and several key representatives in the field of economic development last week for a local jobs and economy summit. The issues were then taken to members of the local business community for their insight.

Where does job creation begin?

“Cut taxes. That’s one of the major ways our economy will be straightened out,” was the quick reply from Rome veterinarian Dr. Richard Dixon.

Sharon Foxworthy, who works with Clean Air Georgia with her husband Stan, is opening a photography studio in downtown Rome.

She championed the cause of the entrepreneurs.

“The big thing we can do is get money flowing to people who can start their own business,” Foxworthy said.

This is where the old chicken and egg conundrum comes into play. Which comes first, the jobs or the money?

William Steiner, executive director of the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission, was a panelist at the Rome News-Tribune job summit.

“We have a lot of on-the-job training money where we can provide “X” amount of money to an employer who wants to create new jobs using people who have gone through (a variety of programs), yet because hirings are so low right now, we can’t use that money quickly enough,” said Steiner.

Thurmond told the panel this may be the nation’s darkest economic hour since the Great Depression.

“These are tough times, really some of the toughest times since the Great Depression, but the good news is that they are not hopeless times,” Thurmond said.

He pointed to a lack of consumer confidence as a major part of the economic equation.

Floyd County police officer Jerome Poole is living Thurmond’s point.

Poole said he’s not spending nearly as much money as he was a couple of years ago.

“I’m a lot more leery as I spend it. I know I’m fortunate to have a job,” said Poole.

Consumer confidence went up nationwide in December for the third straight month, but is still 45 points below the 100 percent rate that was registered back in 1985. The percentage of consumers across the country who expect improvement in business conditions over the next six months declined slightly to 20.9 percent.

Thurmond said it is critical that local communities rethink strategies to create job growth and inspire business at the local level.

Al Hodge, president of the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce, told the panel his organization working to do just that.

The Chamber, Hodge said, is focused on creating more technology-based businesses.

“The Chamber very strongly believes in the entrepreneurial spirit and has increased programming,” said Hodge.

Like many Americans, Mike Brunson with the Georgia Forestry Commission in Rome has not been a supporter of some of the intervention that has taken place from Washington in the past year.

“I didn’t like us bailing out General Motors and Chrysler again. I don’t think that was the right thing to do,” said Brunson.

Thurmond agrees that best place to get things moving again is at the local level.

“By working together with our local elected officials and business leaders, we can make the kind of decisions and develop the strategies needed to get Georgia’s job market moving again,” said Thurmond.

In December, Georgia’s jobless rate was 10.3 percent, and in Rome the rate was 10.7 percent.

Burgett H. Mooney III, president of the News Publishing Company, which owns the Rome News-Tribune, was also among those who participated in the panel discussion. He indicated that the state has positioned itself well as the economy improves.

“One thing the state of Georgia has done is we have not gotten into that trap where we were going to spend a lot of money that we didn’t have. We’ve really bitten the bullet and tried to go through this thing without adding to the bad situation,” said Mooney. Because of that, he feels Georgia will come out of the recession as a low-cost state with low taxes and low fees that will help attract industry.

The Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce is taking the lead in an effort to find financing for prospective businesses and is working to create a network of angel investors to provide seed money for entrepreneurs.

A formal announcement regarding that organization could come before April 1. Steiner is hopeful that the Chamber’s angel initiative will work.

“This state lacks a real focused effort on building new entrepreneurs and retaining businesses,” Steiner said.

Rome City Commissioner and local businessman Duane Reid was also among the summit participants. He said there is much the community has done right.

“We are on the right path with the industries we have. We passed the special purpose, local option sales tax (to help finance acquisition of an industrial park), we have the educated workforce. We’re working aggressively with the Chamber and the development authorities to attract those types of industries (Pirelli, Suzuki, Neaton and F&P) to our community,” said Reid.

Mooney said the foresight of local leaders trying to stay in front of the economic development curve has aided the growth of Rome and Floyd County.

Anne Kaiser, northwest region vice president for Georgia Power, was also on the panel and noted the importance of the community passing the SPLOST last November.

“It did a couple of things. It told business community players that we’re serious about business here so anybody looking here, said this was a healthy business climate,” Kaiser said.

Thurmond called the SPLOST passage “an investment you make with a vision to the future.”

Rome real estate agent Brooke Brinson said things are looking up in the real estate market.

“I know that because I know that my listings are being shown,” said Brinson. He’s at least hopeful that homebuilders will soon be back at work as the inventory of vacant homes that have been sitting on the market shrinks.

Despite the optimism, there are still some concerns.

During a jobs summit in Atlanta last month, it was suggested that 20 percent of the jobs that have been lost in the recession would not come back. Thurmond said that a disproportionate number of men are not going back to school for retraining.

But it’s clear somebody is returning to the classroom. Pete McDonald, vice president for economic development at Georgia Northwestern Technical College, said that technical college enrollment is up 26 percent. However, McDonald said, there are still plenty of openings in some of the real technical fields. He said getting people into math and science programs has been a real challenge.

Hodge said the job-shifting scenario has been a stumbling block. A lot of the heavy industrial textile jobs and manufacturing jobs have been lost and getting those people into some of the newer high-tech programs has not been easy.

The good news, according to Hodge, who represents the 11th Congressional District on the state school board, is that local graduation rates are rising at the same time the rigor of the curriculum has been increasing. The challenge in education is focused on the alignment of the curriculum and the jobs of the future.

There has also been considerable discussion in recent weeks about the economic impact of the proposed Tennis Center of Georgia on the Rome and Northwest Georgia economy. The 74-court center would be located on Berry College property near Mount Berry Square mall, but funding for the projects is still in limbo.

Ansley Saville, who serves on the Chieftains Museum board, said enhancing Rome’s tourist attractions is a great way to get the economy moving. She said when people come to visit the Chieftains Museum and the Rome Area History Museum, they’re spending money in restaurants, hotels, convenience stores and the like.

Thurmond took notice and reminded his fellow panelists that jobs are not all located in malls or industries. He said he’s seen stories about the Rome International Film Festival, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics football championship and even attended a Missionary Baptist convention at The Forum.

“It’s all beginning to take hold,” said Thurmond. “I’m excited for the future.”

Click here to see a video of the jobs and economy summit on Studio Central’s Face to Face with Doug Walker.