Experts predict drought will have minimal impact on Marin’s economy
By Richard Halstead
Marin’s economic growth over the next two years will likely outpace growth in the national economy; and the state’s drought isn’t expected to spoil the party, Sonoma State University economics professor Robert Eyler said Thursday.
Eyler, who heads the Marin Economic Forum, shared his 2015 economic forecast with about 50 people who attended the quarterly meeting of the Marin Business Forum at the Drake’s Landing Community Room in Greenbrae.
“California’s economic forecast has still not been adjusted for a drought yet,” Eyler said. “We’re still betting that the drought will be relatively low in its impact this year and potentially into next. We’ll see.”
Eyler said growth nationally in the fourth quarter of 2014 was lower than expected and flat in the first quarter of 2015. He said California like the rest of the United States is in a bifurcated economic recovery. He said for example in California the economy is improving much faster along the coast than in the central valley.
“The drought can easily exacerbate that bifurcation,” Eyler said.
He said the drought is similar to a regressive tax hurting people with lower incomes more than people with higher incomes.
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