COVINGTON, Ga. — A top Chamber of Commerce leader said Newton’s governing board can help assure the business community economic development remains a priority by hiring a county manager experienced in services that growth requires. 

Hunter Hall, chairman of the Newton County Chamber of Commerce’s board, also warned that hiring someone who followed any “no-growth” policy embraced by the Board of Commissioners could discourage future economic growth inside Newton County. 

"Why do we (the Chamber) care about the county manager position? Because businesses thrive in certainty," Hall said. "Businesses thrive when they know the predictable game to play."

He acknowledged that it was commissioners' choice not to keep Lloyd Kerr, whose contract was not renewed Jan. 1 after six years in the position. The Board is now seeking to fill an interim county manager position. 

Hall, president of Kelly Consulting, said the Chamber’s member businesses were hoping the Board of Commissioners hires someone with experience in the areas of transportation, education, zoning, infrastructure, public safety, workforce development or other areas that result from economic growth. 

“When you hire this person, whoever they may be, please absolutely make certain that they are skilled, qualified and competent in these areas of growth,” he said. 

“These are essential to our growth. They are essential to business growth,” Hall said. 

In 2012, the average household income in Newton County was $48,000 and the county government had a $45 million budget. A decade later, its 2022 general fund budget is $78 million and average household income is $56,000, according to latest figures.

The chamber chairman said the growth in both the budget and household incomes is a result of "core economic development job creation and the recruitment of citizenry who came to the county for those jobs, and the ancillary jobs that support those.

"If we have a no-growth policy, the growth will pass us. Don’t think that you’re preserving what we have,” Hall said. 

He said the result would be Newton County becoming primarily a bedroom community with a decreasing industrial sector and greater reliance on retail growth for the tax revenues needed to support public services. 

“It’s not sustainable. We have to continue to grow both and not an ‘either-or,’” he said.

He said the Board of Commissioners faces the challenge of balancing the influx of new workers moving to the community with providing the infrastructure to serve a growing population — such as a road system on which traffic flows rather than stacks up. 

Hall said he hoped the Board of Commissioners would make a wise decision about hiring for the interim county manager position.

“We, as a chamber, stand behind you to support that position, to support that growth strategy, and we would love to help be at the table in partnership in that effort." 

Hall, a former Newton Chamber president, showed the Board a graphic he said dated to 2012 when Baxter International — now Takeda — announced it planned a new pharmaceutical plant in Stanton Springs.

He said the graphic illustrated the county’s economic development strategy as a series of three progressively larger circles. The smallest center circle was shown in red as the county’s true economic base and the "core of an economic development strategy" in which workforce development is a key component, he said. 

It included such industries as General Mills, which produce their goods in Newton. Their products are consumed outside the county and money for them flow back to Newton in the form of wages and other income.

"That's a 100% net benefit to Newton County," Hall said.

A larger circle surrounding it was the service sector featuring employment at retail stores, restaurants or other service-type businesses like law firms where the products are often produced in Newton and consumed inside the county. 

"Here's the key difference — those are not sustainable from a tax digest basis because we tax them at 7%," he said. "Every time we tax them, every time (a dollar) turns, eventually it will run to zero."

Commissioner Demond Mason said the strategy needed to include encouraging Newton residents to learn needed skills at such local institutions as Georgia Piedmont Technical College.

Commissioner J.C. Henderson said his decades on the Board showed him that state and local governments often give new employers tax breaks to locate in Newton County. 

Residents already living in Newton County often do not get the jobs created by new employers but must make up for the loss of tax income by paying more in taxes for needed government services, Henderson said.

"Why are we saying so much is going on here and it's not," he said. "Let's stop this dog and pony show."

Hall said the strategy includes encouraging new residents with the required skills to move to Newton County and fill positions at new companies. 

He told commissioners that county residents are being hired by new industries but may not be "to the level you're comfortable with."