A delphi study of the economic of fiscal impacts upon Maury County, Tennessee due to the location the Saturn automobile manufacturing plant

In 1985 General Motors announced it would locate the Saturn automobile manufacturing plant in Maury County, Tennessee. The plant will employ approximately 3,000 workers and intorduce a new population to the area. Maury County is predominantly rural. This thesis focuses on what the economic and fiscal impacts on the area will be from the location of the Saturn plant. By using two different delphi groups, expert opinions were gathered. The two panels consisted of community experts and technical experts. Each panel listed and ranked the impacts they felt the community would experience.

Three rounds of the delphi were conducted before it was felt a consensus had been reached. The study demonstrated that both community and technical experts agreed on the types of impacts Maury County shall experience. The community group ranked highest the impacts which emphasized costs to the county. The technical group ranked highest thost impacts which emphasized economic gains for the county.