This is in response to “Fayette is off the map for big job makers,” a factually inaccurate piece printed April 20 that reflects poorly on Fayette County.
Editorialist Steve Brown claims that Fayette doesn’t have what it takes to recruit large companies. “We have nothing to offer them …” states Brown. This comment is erroneous, and the author, who is a Fayette County commissioner, ought to know better.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Fayette has everything we need, and if we make the right decisions now, we will stand ready to usher in an era of prosperity like our citizens have never seen before.
It is the responsibility of a development authority (DA) to market the county in order to recruit new business and industry, and to assist existing business and industry in their expansion efforts. The Fayette County Development Authority (FCDA) serves as the marketing arm of Fayette County, just as the Georgia Department of Economic Development serves as the marketing arm of the state.
The FCDA has a long history of success that includes recruiting such notable companies as Cooper Lighting (now Eaton), Panasonic, TDK, Sigvaris, Aventure Aviation, Rinnai, and Pinewood Studios. These are world-class global companies, providing thousands of high paying jobs and contributing millions to the tax digest as corporate citizens of Fayette County.
The FCDA’s longstanding success has been due in large part to Fayette County’s history of financial investment and commitment to economic development.
DA budgets are used to fund marketing and business development activities geared toward attracting world class companies to the community. Typically, DAs are funded primarily through annual budget allocations by their county commissions as had been the case when Fayette County saw such extraordinary success in economic development over many years.
The FCDA budget funds its marketing initiatives, business recruitment and expansion activities, and film recruitment, and supports a variety of associated business development programs. Unfortunately, thanks to Steve Brown and the County Commission, budget allocations from Fayette County to fund our primary source of economic development have been meager and inconsistent. And as the county’s financial commitment to economic development has dwindled in recent years, FCDA has been forced to downsize its marketing efforts.
In addition to an annual budget, most DAs also maintain a “special projects” fund or reserve that is used to support a variety of special economic development activities that may include water/sewer capacity allocation, land option/purchase, commissioning environmental/geo-technical engineering studies for a site, marketing studies, or grant applications/administration on behalf of a project location.
Fayette County’s erratic, punitive annual budget allocation to fund the FCDA has forced the FCDA to deplete its reserves just to stay in business. This reversal by the County Commission of historically supporting its own economic development program has produced devastating results for the FCDA and for our entire community.
From 2009-2013 the FCDA budget allocation from the county ranged from $302,000 to $225,000. More recently, following the FCDA’s successful recruitment of Pinewood Studios, Brown himself led the charge as the Fayette County Commission drastically cut the funding of the FCDA to a paltry $100,000.
That’s a heck of a way for county officials to say “thank you” to the FCDA professionals for ushering in, as reported by the AJC, Pinewood’s “almost 2 million square feet of studio space, more than 1,300 homes, hotels, offices and other facilities over the next seven years.”
The FCDA is now the least funded DA in the entire metro Atlanta area (and a quick look at other metro Atlanta counties demonstrates that success is tied to funding). Coweta County funds its DA $382,000 annually. Other metro counties have substantially higher budgets.
According to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, Douglas and Clayton counties’ development authorities’ annual budgets are each over $600,000 from a combination of sources, and represent the lower end of funding in metro Atlanta. Several, more urban, counties have annual budgets in excess of $1 million.
Counties that adequately fund their DAs welcome new jobs, and robust businesses that are a good fit for the community. Counties that fail to fund their DAs find themselves without recruiting resources, and short on prospects.
And a county commissioner who first cuts his own FCDA budget, then publicly decries Fayette County’s lack of recruiting resources, needs a lesson in Economic Development 101.
Budget season is upon us. Brown and the rest of the Fayette County Commission have a new opportunity to either invest in the future of our county, or step over a dollar to save a dime.
Mr. Brown editorialized, “… prosperity depends on having government officials who can assemble the necessary elements required…” Indeed, Mr. Brown. Indeed.
Kim Learnard
City Council Post 3
Peachtree City, Ga.
