Pro Tem Greg Reed: Jobs Act incentives have 'worked extremely well'

In 2021, the Legislature reauthorized the Alabama Jobs Act, which extended the economic incentive programs though July 31, 2023. The program includes tax credits and other economic incentives to encourage more industries and high-paying jobs to move to the Yellowhammer State.

Friday on Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal,” Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed (R-Jasper) said the economic incentive program has been successful.

“That program has worked extremely well, Alabama’s had great success with it,” Reed said. “If you look at gross revenues Jobs Act incentives and total revenues for the state, we’ve had about 162% growth in those areas as a result of those incentive packages.”

The Senate leader also pointed out how the legislation has helped average workers across Alabama.

“Also we had a goal of a 7% increase on average pay, which was about $17 an hour. That’s now an increase, I think it’s 31%, up to $23 an hour is the average. So the incentives have paid off. They’ve attracted folks to come from other places across the globe to Alabama, provide jobs for our citizens, and be able to increase quality of life for our citizenry by allowing them to make more money from the new jobs in our communities.”

Reed also discussed what the Legislature should consider before renewing the program in 2023.

“I think we need to have a close eye on transparency,” he said. “Making sure that everybody understands that we are incentivizing the right things to keep it going, to keep the growth going. I also think that we need to be looking at a shorter time frame as we did this past renewal…we need to be agile, we need to be able to move, we need to be able to do things differently if it’s required, so that we can continue the growth that Alabama has so much enjoyed.”

Reed emphasized the success Alabama’s economy has seen in the past few years.

“[C]ongratulations to the people of Alabama,” he said. “I talk with legislators in other places around the country and Alabama’s economy post-COVID has been robust to say the least. So, congratulations to the people of our state for having such an attitude toward growth, an attitude toward growing their businesses, being able to be conservative as we are in the Legislature trying to maintain the amount of resource that we spend, the things that get you to a place that you have huge carryover.”

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee