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Retirees are good for Cumberland County
By Jim Young / Crossville-Chronicle.com
November 13, 2008
Cumberland County has been good at attracting retirees to the community even before those recruiting efforts became a regular part of promoting the local area.
Retirees have had a huge economic impact on the community in addition to being active volunteers for organizations in the county. The state of Tennessee has now realized the economic impact of recruiting this population and Retire Tennessee was the result. The small but growing program was piloted last year and has now moved into its second year of operation.
Cumberland County is one of just nine counties in Tennessee that are now part of the Retire Tennessee program. The cooperative effort takes resources of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development and the participating counties to reach out specifically to higher income seniors encouraging them to relocate here.
Recently Retire Tennessee director Ramay Winchester addressed a lunch meeting of community leaders to explain how the program works and why it is important to local communities as well as to the state. Winchester also said that Crossville and Cumberland County had been doing retiree recruitment for many years and is a great example to other Tennessee communities.
"Cumberland County is the best of the best and is what I consider the guru in our state as far as recruiting retirees," said Winchester, "The Crossville community exemplifies the best practices with this program."
Winchester explained the Retire Tennessee program includes a Web site at www.retiretennessee.org as well as magazine advertising and exhibits at trade shows specifically geared to attracting affluent adults nearing retirement age. Response to the program so far has been substantial with a large number of requests for further information on retirement in Tennessee. The program does extensive tracking of the responses to the promotions that can help track recruitment success and the best use of taxpayer funds.
Statistics shared with those at the meeting came from two university studies on the impact of retirees and include that in 2005 retirees in Cumberland County generated a $2.2 million net fiscal surplus. Retirees increase average income levels and provide a wide variety of volunteer services in the community.
In the year 2000 census, the percentage of the population over 65 was 16.5 percent of the population. That percentage is projected to rise to 24.2 percent by the year 2030. Currently one in five county residents are in-migrant retirees that have moved here from somewhere else.
Retirees have a large impact on increased employment and their incomes have a higher economic impact multiplier because their disposable wealth is used largely for goods and services. Figures show that one retiree equals 3.7 manufacturing jobs in the community. In 2005, 1500 full time equivalent jobs were attributed to the presence of in-migrant retirees in Cumberland County.
While 30 percent of the US population is 50 and over, they have 77 percent of the nation's personal financial assets, 80 percent of the money in savings accounts, 68 percent of all money market accounts and 50 percent of all corporate stocks.
Another benefit of in-migrant retirees is that they do not strain local services. In addition, the income retirees receive protects against economic downturns because it is based on transfer payments and pensions. The increases in property and sales tax allow local government to improve local services.
Often retirees begin as tourists. Some of the factors that pull retirees to a community are critical including climate, quality of life, housing alternatives, cost of living, health services, leisure activities, rural character and amenities like theater and continuing education. And 75 percent of retirees say they plan to work into retirement; 25 percent because they need the money and the rest work to avoid boredom and fund leisure activities.
Retirees also tend to support nonprofit organizations with donations of money and volunteer time. According to research, 50 percent of in-migrant retirees report doing volunteer work of more then 20 hours a week and 40 percent are involved with civic organizations.
Currently the Chamber of Commerce is working to build a positive image of Crossville and Cumberland County as a retirement destination. One of the ways to do that is to attend trade shows and other marketing activities, but currently there is not enough funding to do all the things they would like. The cooperation with the state program is giving more exposure to Crossville and Cumberland County's recruiting efforts.
Efforts to find business partnerships are also part of the current strategy. Free publicity and articles in specialized publications are another way that the work about the community gets out to potential visitors and retirees.
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