Department of Economic Development highlights rural site development, trade and arts funding added by House

Commissioner Wilson of the Department of Economic Development told the subcommittee that the agency’s rural site development and workforce-housing initiatives have been successful at attracting jobs and rebuilding site inventories, and summarized several House additions to the FY2027 budget.

Wilson described that the House added $100,000 to support economic development on navigable waterways, said the House included a $132,000 increase to restore international relations and trade functions reduced in FY2021, and noted a $76,119 addition to tourism operations. He also noted a House increase for community arts grants tied to the Georgia Council for the Arts; the House’s pass-through to Georgia Humanities was described as growing from roughly $62,000 to $188,000.

Wilson emphasized the pipeline of proposals for workforce housing and site development across the state, including program-funded planning and infrastructure grants; he said the programs have funded multiple planning and infrastructure awards and offered to provide exact historical appropriation figures to committee members offline.

Committee members asked for program-level totals and historical comparisons; Wilson acknowledged some figures were not at hand and committed to follow up with detailed data. The subcommittee then invited Georgia Humanities to present on its funding request.