Deschutes County has sent nearly $700,000 to the region’s economic development association since 2009, hoping to stem a business exodus in the grips of the recession and lure new companies to the High Desert.

The annual payment has ticked up over time. County commissioners on Wednesday cut a $217,200 check to Economic Development for Central Oregon, for services EDCO has brought to the table since July.

Between 2009 and 2012, EDCO’s average payment from the county was $116,100.

County leaders say the increase is justified. The three county commissioners each told The Bulletin Thursday that the payments to EDCO are the best use of public money to support local businesses. The money comes from state lottery funds Oregon counties collect each year, much of it earmarked for economic development.

The recession “was a real hard time,” Commissioner Tony DeBone said. “Things were contracting and there was a lot of pressure just to retain the jobs that were here.” He credits the agency for keeping an open dialogue with struggling businesses to take advantage of grants or tax incentives.

Much of the $682,000 given to EDCO has funded day-to-day activities like marketing and administrative costs.

But the funding uptick has come as county administrators have pushed to expand programs for entrepreneurs in Bend and install economic development officers in Sisters and La Pine.

“EDCO sees Deschutes County as a key partner,” EDCO Executive Director Roger Lee said. He said the $682,000 from the county has helped them reach out to companies managing to expand and add new workers during the recession — names like PCC Schlosser and Smith Bros., Pushrods in Redmond and high-tech companies Agere Pharmaceuticals and SisTech Manufacturing in Bend.

Those companies’ high-wage jobs have more than offset the $680,000 investment, Lee said.

County commissioners seem to agree. Commissioner Tammy Baney said EDCO’s biggest accomplishment in the last five years may be the jobs it helped keep in town.

T-Mobile, then Redmond’s biggest private-sector employer, stunned city officials by closing its call center there in 2012 and announcing layoffs for its 360 workers.

“When T-Mobile went out, we nearly lost 300 jobs overnight,” Baney said. “But the coordination between the state, the county, the city and EDCO helped make a loan available to retain that site for another company.”

Consumer Cellular now employs 400 people in the former T-Mobile building and could grow to 600 this year.

Central Oregon Truck Co., a Redmond operation that employs 260, considered a move to Reno, Nev., in the heart of the recession.

Commissioner Alan Unger credited EDCO and the city of Redmond with lining up incentives to keep the company in town. The truck company moved into a new facility in late 2012.

“We’re not specialists” in economic development, Unger said, referring to county commissioners and administrators. “A lot of times, a company looking at Central Oregon will bring information to us that, as a public body we probably shouldn’t have. So having a nonprofit to deal with that sensitive business information is valuable.”

The county is working on a proposed budget for the next fiscal year, which starts in July. Those figures should come into focus over the next few months. It’s too early to tell if the $217,000 for EDCO in the last year was a one-time bump or a sign of things to come, Deschutes County administrator Tom Anderson said.

Commissioners were quick to praise EDCO. But they said any funding increase would be based on specific needs, not EDCO’s day-to-day operations.

“This isn’t an open checkbook,” DeBone said. “We truly look at the numbers every year. But they are discretionary dollars we get through (state) lottery funds, so I think it is a really good use of those dollars.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7820, eglucklich@bendbulletin.com