By Seth Blattman, Flavio Bravo | Phoenix Business Journal
Arizona is strong, our job market is growing, our economy continues to perform and over the last 30 years we have seen consistent population growth. As two Arizonans who grew up here, we can attest that this newfound strength was not built overnight.
When the 2008 recession arrived, Arizona’s real estate and development-based economy was amongst the hardest hit in the nation, forcing deep state budget cuts across the board, including over $1 billion to education. To recover, and to survive another downturn, our economy needed to pivot. The Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA) was established as a quasi-governmental agency, overseen by a board of directors, in the wake of the Great Recession to help diversify our economy and strengthen economic resiliency.
It has clearly been successful. Companies including TSMC, LG, Apple, Amkor and others would likely never have decided to set up or expand their operations in Arizona without the instrumental work of the ACA. During calendar year 2023, the ACA and its economic partners successfully won over 95 competitive projects from companies that committed to creating more than 24,600 projected new jobs while investing over $10.3 billion in the state.
