8 
ranks as an Assistant Secretary of Commerce, 
The first State Cochairman was Governor 
Robert fH. McNair of South Garolina; the first 
Federal Cochairman was J. Russell Tuten, a 
former Congressman from Brunswick, Georgia 
The Commission determined to keep 
its staff small and to work through the existing 
Federal, State, and Joocal agencies to the max- 
It established its head- 
guarters in Washington, D.C. anda field office 
in cach state capital. It now has seven pro- 
fessionais in its headquarters and two in each 
field office. 
imum possible extent. 
The original Act provided that the 
Federal Government would pay all of the 
administrative costs of cach regional commis- 
sion the fiscal year in which it was established 
and for the next two fiscal years as well. After 
this period, the States would fund half of these 
costs. The Federal Government also agreed to 
provide Technical Assistance funds for re- 
search and planning. in 1967, shortly after 
the Coastal Plains Regional Commission was 
established, Congress amended this Act in 
two aspects: 
it authorized the Commissions 
to carry out supplemental grant 
programs to assist state and local 
agencies to supply their share of 
certain Federal matching grant 
programs; and 
1. 
It directed each commission to 
prepare a long-range, comprehen- 
sive economic development plan 
for its region. 
The Commission's Goal and Strategy 
The Coastai Piains Regionai 
Commission determined that its goal was to 
close the ''income gap'' -- to raise per capita 
income of the Region to that of the Nation. In 
1959, aimost five million people lived in the 
159 counties which later formed the Coastal 
Piains Region. On the average they earned 
that year about $800 less than the average 
American. By 1965, there were 5, 395, 000 of 
them and that year they earned about $1, 000 
less than the average American. The income 
gap in 1959 was $4.2 billion; by 1965 the gap 
99 
had widened fo $5.3 billion. Beonomict: have 
projected that this income pap will continue to 
widen at an increasing, rate; the Commission's 
goa) is to close the pap, 
The Commission docs not believe that 
any amount of public funds alone will solve the 
real problem. This problem must be aolvzed 
by private enterprise, the profit motive, and 
enlightened self-interest coupled with appro- 
priate public investment by Federal, State, 
and local agencies. The strategy of the Com- 
mission is to guide available public investments 
in ways that will attract to the Region the pri- 
vate investments which will create additional 
jobs and income. 
In January of last year, the Commission 
adopted its initial action planning document 
which identified a set of target areas for public 
and private investment opportunity. Last 
December the Commission adopted its first 
comprehensive long-range plan, which identi- 
fied critical policy variables designed to in- 
fluence private investment target variables, 
The Commission determined that it would not 
become a welfare agency, that it would instead 
emphasize those public investments which 
would spur and support private investment, that 
it would concentrate on the development of new 
basic industries, and that it would focus public 
investments in recognized centers of regional 
growth to the maximum extent possible. 
Given its concentration on private in- 
vestment as the leading factor in regional 
growth, the Commission has identified six tar- 
get variables deemed important elements in 
private investment decisions; 
factors affecting the basic cost of 
production, 
factors determining the demand for 
products which could be produced 
economically within the Region, 
factors affecting the quality of the 
Region's economic, social, and 
political environments, 
° 
factors determining available infor- 
mation on regional investment 
opportunities, 
