This year, the Georgia Economic Developers Association, a trade group that promotes job creation and sustainable economic development throughout the state, celebrates its 50th anniversary. Through events, a commemorative booklet and an interactive timeline, our members hope to leverage this milestone to educate citizens about our industry’s role in the state’s growth.
Economic development doesn’t just happen. There’s a vast amount of professional development, networking and education that goes into the job, which is to prepare and promote a community to create wealth that improves the livelihood ofresidents.
When GEDA was conceived, Georgia was in the midst of a slow recovery. It had only been just over a decade since the state’s tax digest reached the level it had before the Civil War devastated our economy.
Because of the work of visionaries like Henry W. Grady and William B. Hartsfield, Georgia was ready when World War II brought a massive infusion of federal dollars into the state for military bases, shipyards and factories. This capital investment quickly moved Georgia toward the industrialized “New South.”
Competition within Georgia for capital investment was fierce. By the early 1960s, industrial developers began to see the potential in cooperation. They gradually warmed to the concept of collaboration and cooperation and made it official in 1963 with GEDA’s formation. This teamwork has given Georgia an advantage over other states. It has been a key factor in its economic transformation.
GEDA has refined its mission, but remains focused as a resource for economic development and a voice on issues that affect economic policies and regulations. The organization led an initiative to establish sales and use tax exemptions for industrial machinery. It supported creation of local development authorities. GEDA supported the constitutional amendment establishing the Freeport Inventory Tax Exemption and, more recently, legislation that created the OneGeorgia economic incentive program and expanded the use of tax allocation districts.
Nearly 800 members across the state work to grow the manufacturing, commercial and retail, tourism, convention and small-business sectors. Practitioners are active in everything from entrepreneurship and workforce preparedness to researching commercialization and international trade. They take advantage of GEDA professional development opportunities to learn how to market their cities and counties.
Economic developersdo not create jobs. They provide information and assistance to companies that do. They work hand in hand with government and business to secure investment and reinvestment in their communities.
It’s paying off. Last year, Georgia’s economic developers secured $7.8 billion of investment by locating and expanding businesses and 25,000 new jobs.
Though the work of GEDA members today is invisible to many of us, we will continue to feel the impact of that work for the next 50 years. For more information, go to: www.geda.org/
Mike E. Pennington is president of the Georgia Economic Developers Association.
