AREAS

OF PRACTICE

The Economic Impact Group, LLC is an economic consulting firm that specializes in economic and fiscal analysis supporting local economic development. Founded in 2002, the company helps clients in both the public and private sectors understand how development impacts the local economy; how to measure, track, and forecast local economic performance; and how to calculate the return on tax-based economic development initiatives.

01 Tax Credit Analysis

The Economic Impact Group is a leading firm in the analysis of state tax credits, including the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program and historic rehabilitation tax credits. Economists with EIG have provided studies that analyzed the economic and fiscal impact of state NMTC programs for the legislatures of Texas, Nevada, Utah, and Louisiana. EIG has also provided economic and fiscal impact analysis of historic rehabilitation tax credits for the legislatures of Kentucky, Florida, and Tennessee.

EIG also regularly provides investment-specific analysis for investments made under the Arkansas New Market Jobs Act (ARNJA); the Utah Small Business Jobs Act (USBJA); and the Invest CT Program in Connecticut.

EIG's clients include some of the top firms specializing in structured tax credit equity and debt financing.

02 Local Fiscal Impact Analysis

The principals at the Economic Impact Group are nationally recognized experts in local fiscal impact analysis, and have developed the gold standard in fiscal impact analysis software — LOCI™. What new tax revenues can your government expect from the location of a new company? How many new students in the school system? What will be the increase in public safety expenditures? What is the true cost of the offered incentives? Understanding how new industry will impact both local government revenues and expenditures is critical to your economic development efforts.

EIG also works with private companies and site selection consultants in their relocation efforts by conducting fiscal impact analysis of their proposed operations on communities where they are considering locating. Having this information in hand can help companies understand the value of local economic development incentives.

03 ECONOMIC IMPACT ANALYSIS

Of course, the Economic Impact Group also conducts traditional economic impact analysis using IMPLAN, the most powerful and adaptable Input-Output analysis model available today. The team at EIG has decades of experience using IMPLAN, including conducting sophisticated multi-regional input-output analysis (MRIO). MRIO analysis tracks the movements of goods and services between all 3,440 counties in the nation and can isolate the indirect and induced impacts on a specific community, even when the direct economic impact occurs somewhere else.

Economic impact analysis done correctly can help you understand your core economy, identify your major producers, target areas for potential growth, isolate household spending patterns, and discover inter-industry linkages between your economy and those economies around you.

04 Local Economic Indexes

An economic index measures the alternating waves of economic expansion and contraction in an economy. Using data that is specific to your local economy, you can gain an understanding of what drives the local economy, and gauge where your economy has been and where it is going. With this information a local government and/or business decision-maker has a critical advantage enabling them to reduce their risk of being ill-equipped to deal with changes in their local economy.

The staff at the Economic Impact Group are recognized experts in the construction of local economic indexes. They present training seminars around the country that teach local economic development professionals how to build, develop and implement a local economic index. EIG can also build one for you and show you how to keep it updated. Click here for an example of an economic index done by EIG staff.

05 Tax Revenue Forecasting

The uncertainty of economic cycles makes it difficult for state and local governments to accurately forecast their revenues. Whether it was the collapse of the housing bubble, or rapidly expanding commercial growth, the tax digests of local governments across the country can be subject to external trends. Sales tax revenues are also subject to swings in the local economy. In this environment, it is more important than ever to have accurate revenue forecasts for planning and budgeting purposes. The team at the Economic Impact Group has years of experience building local government forecast models for sales tax, property tax, and other non-tax revenue streams.

LOCI™



Principals

Dr. Alfie Meek

Alfie Meek is the President of the Economic Impact Group, LLC. He also serves as the Director of the Center for Economic Development Research at the Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI²). Dr. Meek has nearly 30 years of experience in economic/fiscal analysis and community-based research. Before joining EI², he served for nine years as the Chief Economist and Director of Economic Development for the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners. Earlier in his career, Dr. Meek was the Research Economist for SunTrust Banks, Inc. Most recently, Dr. Meek served as a member of Governor Kemp's Coronavirus Task Force Economic Impact Committee.

Current areas of special focus include economic and fiscal impact analysis, tax credit analysis (specifically historic rehabilitation tax credits and new markets tax credits), forecasting, econometric modeling, and the financial impacts of land use. In addition to his research, he speaks widely on topics relating to economic and fiscal impact as well as economic development and the macro economy. Dr. Meek has also written for economic development-related publications, as well as other periodicals. His research on the size and economic impact of the sports industry in the United States was published in Sports Marketing Quarterly. This research has hundreds of academic citations and has been referenced in numerous publications – USA Today, Georgia Trend, Financial Times London, Fortune Magazine, and Investor's Business Daily among others..

Dr. Meek holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from The University of Georgia; a Master of Science in Business Economics from Georgia State University; and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Contact

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how to reach us

You can reach us by calling the (678) 948-7840, emailing us at impact@economicimpact.com. We typically respond to our emails within 24 hours.

our address

Economic Impact Group, LLC.
4806 Deer Creek Ct., Suite 200
Flowery Branch, GA 30542