State Farm's announcement last week that it was bringing at least 500 new jobs to metro Atlanta was surprising enough. But perhaps even more stunning was that it didn't involve any economic development incentives.
Georgia's string of recent successes in economic development has been greased partly by doling out huge taxpayer-funded incentives to businesses looking to grow. But, every so often, a firm plotting a major expansion purposely avoids the public hand-out.
That's what happened with State Farm. Georgia officials said they hypothetically could have spent millions of dollars in tax breaks and other incentives in an effort to convince the company to expand. The company declined to comment on exactly why it chose to potentially leave money on the table.
"State Farm’s decision was driven solely by how we can best serve our customers," said company spokesman Justin Tomczak.
That decision is a reminder of the strengths and weaknesses of the practice of using incentives to woo businesses. Although leaders insist the incentives are crucial to competing with regional rivals who can offer similar packages, the firm's choice shows that sometimes big financial handouts aren't necessary to land major business.
In Wednesday's newspaper, the AJC takes a deep look at the impact of state incentives to lure business and jobs. It's a story you'll get only by picking up a copy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution or logging on to the paper's iPad app. Subscribe today.
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