The Georgia Department of Community Affairs has released its rankings for economic development, and the news is not good for most Northwest Georgia counties.
Murray County tumbled 41 spots in the rankings from 2010 to 2011, Whitfield slipped 27 spots and Gordon County slid 26.
The department ranks the counties based on economic factors to determine tax credits. The lowest 71 counties -- which include Chattooga and Murray counties -- make up Tier 1, where businesses are eligible for the biggest tax credits if they create jobs.
Tier 4 counties -- most of which are near Atlanta, Savannah, Macon and Augusta -- are the leading economic counties in the state.
Gordon, Whitfield, Gilmer, Fannin and Walker counties all fell into Tier 2 on the 2011 report. Dade, Bartow, Floyd and Catoosa counties fell into Tier 3, but no Northwest Georgia counties cracked the top tier of the state's wealthiest 18 counties.
Brian Williamson, assistant commissioner for community development at the department, said the rankings factor in poverty rates, unemployment and per capita income.
The rankings make it clear that the recession has affected regions of the state differently, Williamson said.
The same industrial jobs that help Whitfield, Gordon and Murray counties during good times hurt them when consumer demand slows down, he explained.
"They're manufacturing centers," Williamson said. "The unemployment rate was certainly a factor in those counties."
Murray County Manager Tom Starnes attributed the drop to a slowdown in the floor-covering market.
"More than anything else that is a reflection of our current economic conditions," he said. "To say we've taken a harder lick than Whitfield, I can't say that, but we have taken a lick."
Whitfield County has fallen from the 33rd ranked county in 2009 to the 50th in 2010 and 77th in this year's report.
Catoosa County has slid from the cusp of Tier 4 as the No. 19 county in 2009 back toward the middle of Tier 3. Dade has remained fairly stationary, going from Nos. 45 to 52.
Walker, Chattooga and Floyd counties were the only counties in the region to move up on the list. Walker climbed one place from 2010 to 2011 while Floyd climbed seven places, respectively.
At No. 131 out of 159 counties, Chattooga is the lowest-ranked county north of the Atlanta area. David Tidmore, president of Chattooga County's Chamber of Commerce, said that being at the bottom of the list has its advantages.
The county climbed six spots in the rankings from 2010 to 2011 but still remains low in Tier 1, which Tidmore called "Georgia's poorest counties."
"While being in this category is nothing to brag about, the ranking provides more advantageous tax credits for industrial development," he wrote in a statement. "Chattooga has been fortunate that we have not had one of those major employer plant closings. That alone could be how we were able to move up the ladder."
Under Tier 1 guidelines, new or expanding industries that create at least five jobs in the lowest ranked counties would receive a $4,000 annual tax credit, according to data from the Georgia Department of Economic Development. The same business would have to create 10 jobs to get a $3,000 break in a Tier 3 county, such as Walker, or 15 jobs for $1,750 in a Tier 2 county, such as Dade or Catoosa.
For the lowest 40 counties, the state applies the incentives to retailers.
Tidmore said the incentives have helped spark some moderate growth. Dollar Tree, Marvin's and Aarons all have either expanded or plan to locate in Summerville, he said.
"We're certainly not where we want to be at this point, but it's like when my daughter took her first steps," he said. "It wasn't anything pretty, but we all jumped for joy."