Here in the Gallatin Valley, we only have to look out the window to see that construction is booming. Not only residential construction, but there’s a lot of new businesses going up. In the aforementioned "State of the Rockies" report, Gallatin County scores high in most categories, including the #1 ranking (of all counties in the 8-state Rocky Mountain Region) for "Healthy Places to Live and Work". There’s some 280 counties evaluated in that survey, based on fifteen criteria covering economic, cultural, and environmental amenities. It will come as no big surprise to anyone who travels the area, but university towns with good recreational opportunities close at hand score well throughout the region. In Montana, that’s primarily Missoula and Bozeman. The Flathead also scores quite well, though, despite no university. In fact, those Montana counties do exceptionally well, scoring in the top ten in most categories. I certainly don’t find anything to disagree with in their findings, and while it’s often said you can prove anything you want with statistics, I don’t see that the "State of the Rockies" report is biased in any way. It just lays it out, for better or worse, richer or poorer. www.coloradocollege.edu/stateoftherockies

And so, the nitty-gritty results; the criteria are compiled into an overall letter grade. Some counties (like Missoula) that score well in some categories and not so well in others, didn’t get that good of a letter grade, but anyway….

For metropolitan counties (containing an urban population greater than 50,000) a few Montana results;

• Yellowstone (Billings); C
• Missoula; D+
• Carbon; D-
• Cascade (Great Falls); F-

Ahem…. So you can see, Montana’s larger cities don’t really shine according to these criteria. I am surprised at the Missoula county overall score, since as mentioned they did really well in several categories, but kind of took a beating on the economic front.

Montana does much better in the "Micropolitan Counties" category (urban population greater than 2500).

• Lewis & Clark (Helena); A+
• Gallatin; A
• Ravalli (Hamilton); A-
• Flathead; B
• Lake (Polson); C
• Park (Livingston); C
• Silver Bow (Butte); C

No big surprise, but there’s a cluster of eastern (and a few central) Montana counties in the D- and F range. No sense in listing all those…. Now, for "Rural Counties" (urban populations less than 2500);

• Jefferson (Whitehall); A+ (in the top five overall for the entire region)
• Stillwater (Columbus); A
• Sweetgrass (Big Timber); B
• Madison (Ennis); B
• Granite (Deer Lodge); B

Once again, there’s a predictable cluster of rural eastern MT counties with abysmal grades, but also a surprising cluster of them in the C or C- range (Rosebud, Daniels, Prairie, Judith Basin, Garfield, Fallon, and Liberty).

The other item of note is in the "Distressed Counties" category, those with the lowest per capita income levels, and highest poverty and unemployment rates. The Colorado College report studiously avoids mention of the glaring fact that all these counties contain Indian Reservations, however it does mention that they’re "faced with a different set of development needs than counties that are experiencing high levels of growth". Indeed….

So what’s to be learned from this? Well, for one thing; anytime you go making generalizations, you probably don’t have to look too far to find an exception. For instance, those rural eastern MT counties that scored well are attractive only if you’re not trying to find a job! And, even though Missoula County does very well in education, cultural, and recreational categories, their job diversity is surprisingly lacking. So, as I’m attempting to draw some sort of final conclusion from this sometimes contradictory compilation of statistics, I find I’m looking at the "Small Business Vitality" page; for counties generating the most small businesses, 1980-2001. Number One, for non-metro counties in the entire Rocky Mountain Region, is right here; Gallatin County! Number Three is Flathead County. Number Two, incidentally, is Mohave County AZ.

The reason so many people are moving here and starting small businesses primarily has to do with the non-economic factors on the list; the recreational, educational, and overall "quality of life" criteria. Newcomers and long-time residents alike are starting new technology and small manufacturing businesses right and left. That’s the economic future of this state, in my opinion, and folks definitely aren’t moving here to get a job at a mine or lumber mill. The times, they are a’changing, although that fact seems to be lost on some of the candidates that are running for election.