It was a very good year for the Fayette County Development Authority.

That's the message authority CEO Brian Cardoza delivered to the Fayette County Commission last week. Cardoza delivered a state of the authority presentation to the commission after he closed out his fiscal year at the end of June.

"In 2005, we had 68 contacts by business leaders and 31 visits. Of those visits, we had nine new industries locate in the county," he said.

The new industries created 217 jobs at an average salary of $46,000. He expects the companies to create another 583 ancillary jobs. The payroll impact on the county was more than $8 million, but Cardoza said the overall impact was more than $11 million.

He also said the county is getting quite a good deal for the FCDA's annual $313,000 budget.

"It costs the state about $5,000 for each new job that's created. Our costs are about $1,400 per job," he said.

During the next year, Cardoza helps to bring in as many new jobs to the county as this year's amount and would like to see the average salary creep closer to the $50,000 amount.

In addition to helping new businesses locate in the county, Cardoza's group also helps existing businesses in the county.

"When Photocircuits closed, we worked with the Department of Labor and the Atlanta Regional Commission to help the workers find new jobs," he said.

Cardoza recently completed a trip to Canada with Gov. Sonny Perdue. The mission was to try and attract some Canadian companies to move south.

"It's still too early to tell if we'll get any companies, but it was an honor to go on the trip with the governor."