Gov. Nathan Deal has made economic development one of the cornerstones of his time in office, and Deal made jobs and investment a consistent theme of his speech Tuesday to the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s Eggs and Issues breakfast.
This number was among many that stood out: 3,134, or the number of new jobs Deal said would be coming to Georgia in 2016’s first month.
From Deal’s prepared marks:
Since 2011, we have seen over 452,000 new private sector jobs in Georgia and our unemployment rate has declined by roughly half to 5.6 percent. The construction sector of our economy, which was one of the hardest hit sectors during the Great Recession, has rebounded and is now the third lowest unemployment rate in the country at 4 percent.
In this first month of 2016 alone, there will be announcements of 3,134 additional new jobs coming to Georgia, representing almost $376 million of capital investment.
Gov. Nathan Deal addresses a crowd an the announcement of an expansion by gift card payments giant InComm in downtown Atlanta
Deal also mentioned, as he often does, the state’s ranking at the top state to do business by various publications.
Georgia has nabbed a number of headline-grabbing expansions in the past year, including Mercedes-Benz USA’s headquarters coming to the area near Perimeter Mall.
Among the other topics the governor discussed in his speech: the deepening of the Savannah port, education spending, workforce development and state’s film tax credit system.
The film incentives have been a catalyst for the development of film studio campuses and so many television and movie projects coming to Georgia. They also come at a steep cost.
Deal took a shot head on at some who want to alter the incentives, with a full defense of the program.
“We have found an incentives structure that works,” Deal said. “I see no need to alter or fix something that is not broken.”
Esteemed colleague Greg Bluestein has a rundown of that here.
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