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Economics
B2B Stories

Near $25 Million “Artconomic” benefit in CSRA

An annual event sponsored by the Greater Augusta Arts Council (GAAC) highlighted the impact the arts community has on Augusta’s image and as a magnet for tourists. The Arts Day Luncheon featured guest speaker, Susan Irish, National Association of Women Artists, South Carolina Board. Joining Irish was Bennish Brown, President and CEO of Destination Augusta, who stressed the importance of public arts. The numbers tell the story. A 2022 study by Americans for the Arts, a Washington, D.D.-based nonprofit organization, reported a $24.6 million economic impact in Richmond County from

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Dana Lynn McIntyre December 2, 2024 No Comments
B2B Stories

Simon Says: Helene’s Impact on Business

The first economic data since Hurricane Helene hit Augusta and other parts of Georgia is now available. I will provide an analysis of this data in my annual economic forecast breakfast this Thursday, December 5th at 7:30 am in the JSAC Roscoe Williams Ballroom on the Augusta University Summerville Campus. The event is free and open to the public but registration is required. There is a small amount of academic literature on the labor market impact of hurricanes. In fact, Mark Thompson, the Dean of the Hull College of Business

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Dr. Simon Medcalfe December 2, 2024 No Comments
B2B Stories

Simon Says: What you need to know about the FED… and Augusta ties

On Thursday, November 7, the chair of the Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell, announced an interest rate cut of a quarter of one percent. That news was expected, but asked if he would leave the Fed if President-elect Trump asked him to, Powell responded simply “no.” Further, he said it is “not permitted under the law” for the president to remove members of the central bank. To understand why, we need to dig back into some Georgia history. The Federal Reserve was founded in 1913 after a group of bankers

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Dr. Simon Medcalfe November 25, 2024 No Comments
B2B Stories

More than $13 Million to SRP Members for Helene Relief

Almost two months after Hurricane Helene slammed the CSRA with 100 mph winds, signs of the storm to homes and businesses are still a reminder of the initial devastation. All ten counties served by SRP Federal Credit Union were significantly impacted. Recovery is a slow process, but SRP has stepped up to support both its member-owners and team members during the aftermath. The company has provided Emergency Relief Loans, Skip-a-Pay options on consumer loans, and waived or refunded various operational fees in the amount of $13.6 million in total relief.

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Staff Report November 20, 2024 No Comments
B2B Stories

Divvying up tax $ for CSRA tourism

The committee that oversees income collected through the accommodations tax heard from North Augusta organizations hoping for a financial boost for next year. Members of the Accommodations Tax Advisory Committee received 13 requests from nonprofit organizations and the city’s Parks, Recreation, and Tourism (PRT) departments. The city’s 3% tax is collected from people who visit the city and stay in local accommodations. Some events attract major crowds with people staying one or more nights. John Felak, owner of Lookaway Inn and Chairman of the committee, told ABD the city is

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Dana Lynn McIntyre November 20, 2024 No Comments
B2B Stories

Big investment in mobile training

Augusta Technical College has received a $750,000 donation from Syensqo to develop a mobile learning center. A news release said the mobile unit will address critical challenges while supporting workforce enhancement and community development. “The lasting impact of COVID-19 and growing inflation have created significant barriers for students, particularly those from economically disadvantaged and rural backgrounds. Augusta Tech’s response, supported by Syensqo, aims to mitigate these challenges by providing more remote offerings through this state-of-the-art mobile lab,” read the release. “That is going to be used for our new mobile

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Dana Lynn McIntyre November 19, 2024 No Comments
B2B Stories

Simon Says: Remote worker survey of Augusta employees

Nationally, 13.8% of workers worked from home in 2023. Pre-pandemic, this number was 5.7%. Coworking Mag explored demographic, income, education, and industry data from the Census Bureau to profile the average remote worker in the Augusta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). In Augusta, 10.1% or more than 28,600 people in the workforce are remote workers.  In tech-heavy cities such as Raleigh NC and Austin TX, remote workers make up almost 25 percent of the workforce. Of these remote workers, 63.6 percent are women, the second highest in the southeast behind Fayetteville

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Dr. Simon Medcalfe November 18, 2024 No Comments
B2B Stories

Guest Column: Strong Roots Can Weather Any Storm

In Georgia, where farming is more than a livelihood—it’s a way of life—Hurricane Helene tested those roots like few storms before. As the nation’s top pecan-producing state, Georgia takes great pride in its orchards and the farmers who tend them year after year. But Helene’s impact has left farms and rural communities with billions in damage, impacting pecan orchards especially hard and disrupting the broader supply chain. For Stuckey’s, a company that relies on Georgia pecans for nearly all of our products, this has been a wake-up call about just

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Stephanie Stuckey, Chair of Stuckey’s Pecans November 18, 2024 No Comments
B2B Stories

Tourism means big bucks in metro Augusta

The economic impact tourism has on Augusta and the surrounding area was celebrated by Destination Augusta, the Augusta Sports Council, and Film Augusta. The numbers were announced at the 2024 Destination Augusta Champions event. Bennish Brown, President and CEO of Destination Augusta (pictured above), told ABD the event is an opportunity to acknowledge the demanding work done by people in the tourism industry. “We realize we don’t do this by ourselves. We want to make sure this industry knows we appreciate them,” he said. “We are the third largest employment

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Dana Lynn McIntyre November 17, 2024 No Comments
B2B Stories

Legislative Breakfast Spotlights Workforce-Education Connection

Sonny Perdue, Chancellor of the University System of Georgia, delivered the keynote address at the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce’s annual Legislative Breakfast Thursday morning. Perdue has worn many hats over his career. Veterinarian, served in the Georgia State Senate, two terms as Georgia Governor and Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He said serving as Chancellor is the most impactful job he has ever had. “We have over 350,000 lives a year in our university system, learners that are looking for life changes,” he said. “And that’s the

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Dana Lynn McIntyre November 14, 2024 No Comments
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