The Economic Element is an optional element in Martin County's Comprehensive Growth Management Plan. Accordingly, the Economic Element describes current economic conditions in Martin County, presents forecasts of the County's economic development, selects a preferred course of economic development, advances an economic goal, a set of objectives and policies designed to achieve preferred economic development, and presents a strategy for implementing those policies. The Economic Element focuses on economic development for the County as a whole.
Many forces affect the Martin County economy.
These forces include some factors that are beyond the control of local government, including the health of the world, national, and state economies, interest and inflation rates, national economic and environmental policies, labor supply, and wage rates. Nonetheless, there are factors that local government can affect to some extent, including overall development rates, availability of land for different types of development, availability of and types of housing, local tax rates and certain other costs of living and doing business, quality of schools, quality of infrastructure, quality of public safety, and other factors affecting the overall quality of life. The Economic Element addresses the means by which Martin County will manage these factors toward the goal of achieving desirable economic development. The Evaluation and Appraisal Report for the Economic Element adopted in 1997 contradicted these assumptions. All available economic measures showed a healthy growing economy in Martin County with decreased population growth rate and a significant decrease in manufacturing jobs.