Dothan Chamber President Calling for New State Incentives for Job Creation

Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce president Matt Parker is calling for more state incentives to bring jobs to our area.

According to Parker, the state is falling behind its competition.

"We compete with other southeastern states that have deeper coffers. All things being equal, you run down to the issue, do you have a better deal than another state? That's the battle we're fighting," said Parker. "From a tax and business climate, Alabama does very well, but  then you get into the incentive component where we may be competing with another state that may have a deeper well or an incentive component that we're trying to get."

He said the state is on the right track to attract new business with its low taxes for companies, but a new incentive program may be the tipping point for several corporations looking at investing in our state.

During the last legislative session, the state passed an incentive program that Parker said is working in Dothan's favor, but there are many other options that would benefit the Wiregrass.

"The employee payroll retention credit would have given us a really good incentive to mitigate what some of the other states have to be competitive," said Parker.

Besides incentives, Parker said an I-10 connector would also help attract industry to the circle city.