After touting policies he says helped win re-election in Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp told an audience on one of the world’s biggest stages that federal inaction and intrusions continue to pose challenges for state leaders.
A key example: The Inflation Reduction Act, which has been praised by many as driving historic investment in clean energy but which Mr. Kemp said has hurt foreign companies investing in the state.
“I believe the legislation picked winners and losers — thankfully the administration is working on fixing that,” Mr. Kemp said in Davos, Switzerland, during a World Economic Forum panel titled “America (Un)Bound.”
The Georgia Republican shared the stage with a bipartisan group of members of Congress Tuesday, their panel covering issues ranging from border security and political polarization to the war in Ukraine.
Mr. Kemp kept it local, focusing on what he characterized as evidence he had fought for Georgians on practical issues by instituting teacher pay raises, keeping schools and businesses open during the pandemic, issuing health care waivers and returning a billion dollars of tax money to citizens of the state.
On the IRA front, the governor was presumably alluding to Korean-owned firms Hyundai and Kia who have complained about their foreign-made electric vehicles being excluded from federal tax incentives even as they plow billions of dollars into Georgia facilities.
Mr. Kemp did not mention that the state has been on the beneficial end of federal policies aimed at boosting the domestic solar-energy and battery sectors and championed by Washington Democrats.
Just a week before heading to Davos, another Korean-owned firm, Qcells, announced a $2.5 billion investment in Georgia to build two new facilities bringing more parts of the “solar supply chain” to the state. The company credited the regulatory certainty and federal production credits included in the IRA and included statements from Georgia’s two Democratic U.S. senators in its news release.
Leaning heavily on themes he espoused during his recent reelection bid, Mr. Kemp said “much could be solved” in Washington to lighten the load on governors dealing with issues like gang violence, the fentanyl crisis and human trafficking at the state level — all fallout, he said, from an insecure southern border.
In an echo of earlier comments by Arizona U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the governor said the feds should “secure the dang border” while they work on bigger compromises.
“If there is gridlock in Washington D.C., one thing you can count on is stability and a great economy and a great business environment in the state of Georgia, and we are going to keep rocking and rolling — but it is frustrating to have to deal with the fentanyl crisis because we simply cannot secure our border in this country.”
According to a report by CNBC, Mr. Kemp attended a meeting with some 50 company CEOs in Davos before his panel discussion. His office said the trip is aimed at touting conservative leadership and Georgia’s strong economic record while recruiting more business to the state.
Mr. Kemp is slated to visit Germany this week to meet with companies that have committed hundreds of millions of dollars to the state.
The Pendleton Group is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's Economic Development Channel. Subscribe here for monthly Economic Development newsletters.
