January 18, 2010
Dave Alexander
Muskegon Chronicle

PROSPERITY INDEX - FOR MUSKEGON COUNTY
2000 - 2006 - 2007

Social equity 3.7 - 3.5 - 3.5
Environment 2.7 - 2.8 - 2.9
Economy 2.7 - 2.4 - 2.5
Overall 3.0 - 2.9 - 3.0

Scale:
5.0-4.0: Thriving
3.0-3.9: Sustainable
2.0-2.9: Needs improvement
1-1.9: Failing
Under 1.0: Unsustainable

MUSKEGON COUNTY — The Muskegon area was holding its own up to the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008, an annual community report card has found.

The third year of the Prosperity Index for Muskegon County found that in 2007 — the most recent data available — the community was humming along at a “sustainable” level.

The index gauges the community in the areas of economics, social equity and the environment.

But those who have developed the Prosperity Index fear that the current recession with its high unemployment, lower wages and home foreclosures will set back any community progress made in prior years.

“If we can continue where we are, this would be a level of just making it,” Muskegon County Public Health Director Ken Kraus said of the 2007 index results. “It is not thriving, which is what we’d like to be. But this is Michigan, and we are hanging in there.”

The overall 2007 Prosperity Index score was 3.0 on a zero-to-5 scale, which is up slightly from 2.9 in 2006. The Muskegon social equity score was 3.5, environmental integrity score 2.9 and economic prosperity score 2.5.

Compared to the overall West Michigan region, Muskegon was higher in social equity but lower in environment and economic prosperity. Muskegon trended the same when compared to the entire state.

The Prosperity Index is a project of the Muskegon Area Sustainability Coalition with the assistance of the Community Coordinating Council of Muskegon County, Muskegon Area

First and the Grand Valley State University Annis Water Resources Institute. It receives financial support from the Alcoa Foundation. Each of the three sectors is indexed based on specific indicators such as per-capita incomes for economics, rates of air particulate matter for the environment and infant mortality for social equity.

One key indicator the index designers say seems to be a critical factor in the community’s future prosperity is the percentage of the 25-to-34 age group that has bachelor’s degrees.

Muskegon County’s young bachelor’s degree holders were at 20.6 percent for 2007, which is up from 14.1 percent in 2000, 18.5 percent in 2005 and 18.7 percent in 2006.

The Muskegon numbers lag those for West Michigan, Michigan and the nation. Yet, the local percentage of young bachelor’s degree holders was better than the Saginaw-Flint region.

“That, of any of the indicators, really drives everything,” Kraus said of the young college grads. “We need to encourage those folks to live in the community. It is a population that employers are looking for but they are so mobile.”

With more young college graduates, the per-capita income levels would rise, said Dan Rinsema-Sybenga of Muskegon Area First, the local economic development agency. The 2007 Muskegon County per-capita income average of $26,880 is below that of West Michigan, the state and the nation.