The State of Tennessee was recently honored at Area Development’s annual Shovel Awards by being the recipient of the first-ever “Platinum Shovel” which “recognizes states that went beyond the Gold standard for job creation and investment.”
📢 PSA 📢 Tennessee went above and beyond the gold standard to win @AreaDevelopment's first-ever Platinum Shovel award. 👏 This award recognizes the Volunteer State's significant job creation and investment in 2021.
Read more here ➡️ https://t.co/MapCZxJZTJ pic.twitter.com/MP3qOdX2UU
— TNECD (@TNECD) June 6, 2022
The 2022 Shovel Awards “recognize states for their achievements in attracting high-value investment projects that will create a significant number of new jobs in their communities” and are ”based on information provided by economic development officials,” according to Area Development.
Tennessee was awarded the “Platinum Shovel” due to its outstanding economic development efforts in the past year, including five projects promising a thousand or more jobs in diverse sectors, three of them with investments topping a billion dollars. Tennessee’s biggest economic investments from the past year include landing the Ford Motor Company and SK Innovation’s $5.6 billion project, Ultium Cells LLC’s $2.4 billion project, and Oracle America’s $1.4 billion project.
Oracle America’s project in Nashville is the single biggest jobs announcement in Tennessee’s history – promising as many as 8,500 high-paying jobs – and has earned separate recognition from Area Development by being honored as “Project of the Year.”
Along with Tennessee, the State of North Carolina was also awarded the “Platinum Shovel” award for its outstanding economic development efforts.
Five states were awarded Area Development’s ‘Gold Shovels’ based on their population. The states that won ‘Gold Shovels’ include: Texas (12+ million population), Virginia (8+ to 12 million population), Arizona (5 to 8 million population), Kentucky (3 to 5 million population), and Kansas (under 3 million population).
The runners-up in each population category were awarded ‘Silver Shovels’. Those states include: Florida (12+ million population category); Georgia and Ohio (8+ to 12 million population category); Alabama, Indiana, and South Carolina (5+ to 8 million population category); Arkansas and Louisiana (3+ to 5 million population category); and Idaho, Mississippi, and Nebraska (under 3 million population category).
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
They call it “platinum” because that is how high the cost has been for taxpayers to subsidize so much of this growth. Growth that overtaxes infrastructures and schools.