Why pay to play with the JDA?
Four counties have greater clout as a group
The Northwest Georgia Joint Economic Development Authority — comprised of Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade and Walker counties — was created to market these four counties, individually and collectively, to potential businesses and industries.
Currently, 149 of Georgia’s 159 counties are members of at least one joint development authority.
But recently, some Catoosa County elected officials and residents have questioned why their county, which has its own development authority, needs to contribute roughly $97,000 to the JDA’s annual budget.
Members from all counties responded and were in agreement that JDA membership was a good investment, both for the individual counties and for the region.
“The EDA and the JDA compliment each other,” Randall Peters said.
Peters is chairman of Catoosa’s Economic Development Authority and one of the county’s three representative on the Joint Development Authority’s board of directors.
Presenting the best features of a four-county region — its trained workforce, infrastructure and availability of suitable land — can catch the eye of industrial site selectors. But it is the bonus of a JDA’ s boosted tax credits that can sway a business to locate in a particular area.
Georgia’s counties are ranked on a 1-4 tiered basis according to their relative economic development. Catoosa has the highest rating of the region’s counties. But its JDA membership means it too is able to offer an additional $500-per-employee tax credit for new hires.
That $500 tax credit is available for a five-year period and is in addition to a $750 credit offered by the state.
Chip Catlett, chairman of Walker County’s delegation to the JDA’s board of directors, highlighted how those tax credits help local industries and increases a community’s competitive advantage .
“Here are some benefits that are associated with being a member of the JDA,” Catlett said. “Please note that the figures listed in the Job Tax Credit example are real numbers that companies in our region have benefited from and examples for locations or expansions that the JDA staff were a part of.” As examples he noted: Catoosa County - Shaw LVT Plant in Ringgold
200 jobs x $500 = $100,000 x 5 years = $500,000 Chattooga County - Mohawk Expansion in Summerville 500 jobs x $500 = $250,000 x 5 years = $1,250,000 Dade County - Vanguard National Trailer in Trenton
400 jobs x $500 = $200,000 x 5 years = $1,000,000
Walker County - Audia Plastics in LaFayette · 140 jobs x $500 = $70,000 x 5 years = $350,000 “Our assets in these four counties are valuable to the entire region and we are stronger working together with all our neighbors,” Catlett said. “We share the workforce we have in the area. When one succeeds, we all succeed.”
Chattooga County Commissioner Jason Winters is a firm believer in the benefits that membership in the JDA provides for his county — and its neighbors.
“I think that the fourcounty effort best allows us to compete against Chattanooga; Dalton; Gordon, Floyd and Bartow counties in attracting businesses,” he said. “Our joint effort allows us to market a larger work force,
work across county lines and make sure our industries have what they need. This is something where an expansion in one county benefits all the others.”
As example, Winters noted that about 40 percent of the workforce at the LaFayette Roper plant, recently purchased by Haier from GE, live in Chattooga County. At the same time, Chattooga County’s largest employer, Mount Vernon Mills, attracts many of its employees from Walker County.
“I’ve seen the benefits of the JDA,” he said. “It is so competitive in the arena right now that marketing together will be necessary to draw a company’s attention.”
Working together allows this corner of the state to compete with metropolitan and more heavily industrialized areas, and a JDA’s offering regional tax credits can often seal a deal.
“Chattooga’s annual membership is returned several times over,” Winters said. “From a fiscal standpoint, 80 new jobs will recover our $40,000 investment several times over.”
Dade County Executive Ted Rumley said that every year the county’s membership in the JDA is evaluated.
“We look at the track record,” he said. “We stay a member because they help businesses receive those greater incentives, things which make it possible to attract those who might otherwise go elsewhere. This is their worldwide reach.”
Just as the JDA markets far beyond the region’s borders, Peters noted the same is true for counties being able to offer more as a group than as individuals.
Catoosa is different from the others in its JDA by having four interchanges on Interstate 75 (more rural Dade has three I-59 exchanges and one to I-24) which is among the nation’s busiest for commercial traffic. But while it has access, Catoosa lacks tracts of flat land readily available for construction of large scale factories.
“That is why we haven’t been able to expand our industrial base,” Peters said. “Our opportunities are tied to transportation and accessibility to a major (Chattanooga) metropolitan market.”
Catoosa’s commissioners by a 4-1 vote, the only dissenter being Chairman Keith Greene, approved continuation of the county’s participation in the JDA. Incoming chairman Stephen Henry, who takes office in January 2017, has affirmed his support of the regional alliance.
Catlett stresses the member counties work cooperatively among themselves, the Appalachian Regional Commission and that the NWGE JDA’s will be the point of contact for the Greater Chattanooga Economic Partnership that launches this fall.
“We are working to improve and streamline the communication process with our member counties and their local staff,” Catlett said. “We feel this will greatly improve the relations with our local elected officials and hope that this will serve to further show the JDA’s useful as a tool for local economic developers to use.”