Business View Magazine - May 2016 27
city. In fact, he believes that every city is competing for
both residents and businesses. “I start a lot of my dis-
cussions, when I go places, with ‘Owensboro, comma,
Incorporated.’ We’re a business,” he asserts. “I’ll talk
to cities and I’ll tell them, straight out, ‘you have to
understand something: I’m competing with you. I want
the young people to come to Owensboro. I want them
to stay here. I want businesses to come here. I don’t
want them to come to your city. I want them to come
to mine. So, I’m going to do what is necessary to build
a tremendous product, here, that people are going to
want to buy into.’ We’re selling our city. We’re compet-
ing.”
Interestingly, it was the exact opposite of competition
that enabled Owensboro to launch its revitalization in
the first place. In fact, it was many levels of coopera-
tion that needed to take place in order to make things
happen - starting with the city’s own leadership. Payne
believes that Owensboro’s governmental structure
helped to foster that first level of cooperation. “We
have no partisan politics in our government,” Payne
explains. “I don’t run as a Democrat or a Republican
