In the 2022 fiscal year, the Madison County Economic Development Authority (MCEDA) was able to generate 413 new jobs from nine separate projects that were awarded to the county with the average wages being $62,500 – $18,000 higher than the average yearly wages in the county. As 2023 kicks off, there are eight large projects that MCEDA is pursuing.
“This past year, we actually were very fortunate,” MCEDA Executive Director Joey Deason said. “Those nine projects also committed $584 million in investment and what makes that $584 million extremely important is, when that’s constructed, built and put on the books, which all should be within the next few years, it’ll generate annual revenue for the county and the county school system of approximately $4.1 million per year.”
Last year, MCEDA also partnered with Entergy to do a marketing campaign called Hungry for Power and themed it after Batman, and it was extremely successful.
“We sent that marketing campaign out to 36 consultants across the U.S. and we got 36 responses back, which is basically unheard of in today’s environment,” Deason said. “We had every one of them respond back in a positive manner. So it was a very, very successful year.”
Sales tax in 2022 for the county in total was 20 percent over what was in 2021, but Deason said due to inflation and increasing interest rates, the year-over-year growth may not reach as high in 2023.
“We’re going to see growth this next year, but I don’t think we’ll see double digit growth,” Deason said.
However, the eight projects that MCEDA is chasing after this year equate to 7,600 employees and about $6.8 billion in investment. The companies producing these projects range from service equipment, global energy technology, circuit board manufacturing, solar panel manufacturing, and more — a wide array of projects.
“Two of those projects, we are one of two spades in the final,” Deason said. “Hopefully within the next three months or so, there will either be a winner and a loser. They will be announced very, very quickly.”
While they currently have eight projects they’re actively pursuing, Deason said more can get added very quickly.
“We may have one of those 36 consultants for the State of Mississippi, our utility order interchange, or someone who just walked in off the street with an RFI, and we would suddenly have another project that we would be working on,” Deason said. “Typically for our projects, they come through the State of Mississippi, the Mississippi Development Authority and the City Development Authority or they come through our electrical utility partner, which is Entergy. There are existing industries that are already located here that are looking to expand, so they’re homegrown. Between those different pods, there typically will be anywhere around about 50 projects a year.”
Deason said they are cautiously optimistic about this year as they’ve been fortunate throughout covid to have over a billion dollars of investment in the Madison County community.
“In a perfect world, I’d love to see another half a million to a billion dollar investment this year,” Deason said. “But I can’t make any promises on those, however, it won’t be because there’s no effort being put in.”
In Deason’s opinion, Madison County’s economy is the most vibrant economy in the State of Mississippi. It only takes a look at the growing construction going on around the county or the number of people moving into the area to see it.
“On my street alone, within the last few years, I’ve had people from Texas, Arizona and California moving in with only two of those being related to jobs,” Deason said. “One of them did their research and found out that Mississippi was a great place to live. They did a little more research and found out that the value of the dollar in Mississippi and Madison County was phenomenal. So, they moved from California and retired.”
Deason’s goal for 2023 is to win as many jobs as possible to increase the average wages and to create investment that drives revenue for the county and for the schools.
“Ultimately, that’s what our job is — to create that investment and create that quality of life, and that’s what we’re excited about,” Deason said.
