Metropolitan statistical area standards to remain the same

ALBANY — The federal Office of Management and Budget’s announcement that its 2020 standards will maintain the metropolitan statistical area threshold of 50,000 residents is more than an ego boost for communities like Albany. According to the president/CEO of the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce, the announcement is a “huge economic lift for communities across the state and the country.”

“This is an important win for our community and region, and it was made possible in large part through the urgent and collective voice of the Albany Area Chamber leadership and membership,” chamber head Barbara Rivera Holmes said Thursday. “By working in concert with our engaged Albany area Congressional delegation (Reps. Sanford Bishop and Austin Scott and Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock), the governor’s office and other stakeholders, we will maintain not only the status but the funding that such a designation provides.”

Holmes said MSA declassification, which became a threat when the OMB announced it would up the number of residents required for such designation, would have placed Albany and the Albany area at a significant disadvantage, jeopardizing federal funding, economic development efforts, transportation and infrastructure projects, and health care aid. In addition to Albany, the decision to maintain the threshold impacts five other MSAs in Georgia and 144 across the country.

“We all know that so goes Albany, so goes southwest Georgia,” Holmes said. “Albany is definitely the hub of the five-county metropolitan statistical area, so (declassification) would have impacted the five counties in the MSA and all other counties in southwest Georgia. We all need each other.”

The Albany chamber president said losing MSA designation would have jeopardized millions of dollars in federal aid; hindered efforts to boost commerce, economic development and recruitment; increased challenges to the area’s work force and demographics, and negatively impacted the entire southwest Georgia region.

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