"The city council has to make determinations about how they are going to spend their money particularly in times when money is tight so they have to do a cost benefit analysis and that was their decision and I certainly respect their decision in that matter."
Gabe Craighead, Chairman of the Commission, says that even though Columbia has left the commission it is still part of the region."In the overall picture, Columbia is still apart of our region and we can still get companies to come to Columbia and try to economic develop even if they are not part of our membership."
Boone County Commissioner Karen Miller who is an Associate Commissioner on the Regional Planning Commission says she is disappointed in the city's decision."I was disappointed. I mean we are all in this together. We are our region and it takes all of working together especially now with the economy the way it is, in order to stay ahead of the game."
With Columbia leaving the group, the Commission will lose revenue. Rasmussen says they'll just have to cut back."The commission will just have to do some things less than they were doing before but the budget will be impacted but it won't bring the operation to a hault by any means"
Rasmussen also says he hopes Columbia will rejoin the commission in the future. © Copyright 2012, KBIA
