Commissioner: Businesses can be won without tax incentives | Georgia

(The Center Square) — Georgia’s financial building commissioner mentioned companies can be lured without tax incentives, however he doesn’t need lawmakers to modify the state’s program.

“If there were no tax incentives, Georgia would win a majority of the time because I go back to the fact that we’ve invested in logistics, we’ve invested in workforce training, we’ve done all the right things over a long period of time,” Wilson mentioned all over a press gaggle. “In the world that we’re in today, Georgia has done an amazing job setting up the structure by which we are competitive, but we’re not overly competitive.

“And when it comes to incentives, you actually have to do something, you actually have to produce something in order to realize … an incentive, so I feel like Georgia has done the best job to protect the taxpayer in an incentive environment.”

Wilson spoke with journalists following a press tournament saying Area Development magazine named Georgia the No. 1 state for trade for the tenth consecutive 12 months. The announcement coincides with the state legislature’s Joint Tax Credit Review Panel, which is reviewing the state’s tax credit and may make suggestions for adjustments to the state’s incentives.

“My advice to the commission would be if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Wilson mentioned.

Georgia has given billions in taxpayer-backed incentives for electrical car producers, together with Rivian and Hyundai Motor Group.

In a contemporary interview with The Center Square, John Mozena, president of the Center for Economic Accountability, mentioned incentives aren’t integral to an organization’s choice.

“The ability of states to really change a company’s site selection decision with subsidies is pretty minor,” Mozena mentioned.

The Michigan-based Center for Economic Accountability named Georgia’s choice to offer $1.5 billion in incentives for a Rivian Automotive electrical car meeting plant as 2022’s “Worst Economic Development Deal of the Year.”

“These things are almost always sold as it’s all free money. If not for the company locating here, we’d be getting zero benefits,” Mozena added. “That sounds plausible at first glance. It’s what makes people believe these things. But the fundamental problem is that companies like Hyundai or Ford or Intel or Amazon aren’t making these deals based on subsidies.”