Issue link: http://savannah.uberflip.com/i/1514376
16 4 to hold onto these distressed assets, so we expect some regional and community banks to fail in 2024. Georgia's hospitality industry will expand slowly, although the prospects are different for various segments. Vacation travel will continue to outperform business travel and domestic travel will do better than international travel. Prospects for the lodging industry indicate that midscale properties probably will fare best while upscale and luxury properties will struggle. Manufacturing Manufacturing is cyclically sensitive and depends on complex supply chains and export markets. We expect Georgia's manufacturing sector will outperform the nation's because the state saw many manufacturing economic development projects announced in 2020- 23, including two of the biggest in the state's history. We predict that supply chain problems will diminish, and given the need to produce more of everything, the number of manufacturing jobs in Georgia will grow. Food processing—Georgia's largest manufacturing industry—fared well during the pandemic, and it will continue to do so. Among the many agribusiness and food processing projects announced recently are Yakult, 4 Fungi's Regenerative, CJ Foodville, PepsiCo Beverages, Jack Link's, AFB International, American Peanut Growers Group, King's Hawaiian, Nestle Purina, Anheuser-Busch, Sugar Bowl Bakery, Kerry Group, Batter Up Foods, Frito Lay, and General Mills. In 2024, Georgia's vehicle and parts manufacturing industries will benefit from higher domestic demand for vehicles. Supply chain problems are expected to diminish, which will allow the industry to increase production to meet consumers' pent-up demand for new cars. Political pressures that encourage foreign manufacturers to invest more in U.S. production facilities and to buy automotive parts from American manufacturers will help, too. Meanwhile, Geo rgia is developing as a hub of the electric vehicle manufacturing industry. Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solutions' $7.6 billion electric vehicle and battery manufacturing facility in Bryan County is a major venture that will be able to support the production of 300,000 electric vehicles annually. Vehicle parts manufacturing companies also have moved close by to support the Hyundai assembly plant. State and Local Government Although the economic slowdown will slow growth in state and local government revenue collections, inflation will help prevent revenues from declining. In fact, local governments' revenue collections will increase strongly due to the lagged effects of the recent housing boom on property tax digests. The biggest long-term challenge for state government financing is uncertainty regarding federal funding for mandated programs, especially Medicaid. The second major challenge is an antiquated tax structure that increasingly is misaligned with the state's shifting economic structure. Consequently, when Georgia's economy grows, state taxes do not generate as much revenue as a similar expansion would have generated in the past. This systemic reduction of revenue yield from economic/population growth will not disappear without comprehensive tax reform, which is difficult politically.