Cities, counties, school districts and state government profit from economic development in the form of income, property and sales taxes. Private enterprise also benefit from economic development from increased capital investments and increased sales. To take advantage of a market in which there are capital investments in real estate, machinery and equipment that will be located, operations including the purchase of raw materials, and employment of labor will result from the location of the capital improvements. Government at all levels as well as some specific private businesses join in the attraction of these investments for their mutual benefit. Cities, counties and states over the last 25 years have become more directly involved in assisting, promoting and marketing communities and states in the name of economic development.
Every state now has an economic development department.
In Kansas, we called it the Department of Commerce and Housing. Every city over 50,000 population has an economic development division or department. It is becoming more common to find cities under 20,000 population having staff with major economic development responsibilities. Economic Development in Leavenworth County Leavenworth County is on the northwestern fringe of the greater Kansas City, Kansas-Missouri metropolitan area. In 1969, the city of Leavenworth and Leavenworth County created what became the Leavenworth County Port Authority, as authorized by state law, a special purpose government to assist in the economic development of Leavenworth County.