One of the big news stories of recent days is being billed as political, and in many ways it is. But there is much more to it than that. The announcement that DiamierChrysler is putting a major manufacturing plant near Savannah marks a change in direction for this state's economic development efforts.
For a number of years now Georgia state government has been happily letting the economic engine called Atlanta provide growth for this state. Job growth greatly took place in central Atlanta, and little was done to encourage job creation outside the Atlanta metro area. Manufacturing jobs and tourism jobs outside downtown Atlanta were either ignored or considered second rate. Around the outer edge of Atlanta, where most of Atlanta's working folks live, there was hooting about "urban sprawl" and there developed a blatantly anti-industry sentiment. Whatever happened to the possibility that Volvo would put a plant in our area? Alabama got Mercedes, and South Carolina BMW ... and both of those plants spawned countless smaller industries. Hall County got some spinoff industries because our Chamber of Commerce courted them, and worked hard to get them. But at the state level, we have been cool to this type job creation.
This time the State of Georgia went after the Diamler-Chrysler plant. Our state, our taxpayers, have committed $320-million in incentives to that company to get it to locate in Georgia, and it will bring with it 14,000 jobs ... which means Georgia taxpayers are paying $67,000 per job. That's pretty steep, but we have let our neighboring states get ahead of us and we're playing catch-up. It will give some balance to Georgia's workforce, and its economy, and more important it is a change in direction that will boost the economy in areas like Hall County and Northeast Georgia. Yes, it was political news, and it probably favored our present governor, but underneath it was a bipartisan effort that will help all Georgia. It was good news.
This is Gordon Sawyer, and may the wind always be at your back.
Monday
August 4th, 2025
2:35PM
