Matt Hamilton/Daily Citizen-NewsCarpet and Rug Institute President Joe Yarbrough, left, greets Gov. Nathan Deal before the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce banquet at the convention center Tuesday night.

DALTON, Ga. — For almost 25 straight years, Nathan Deal has represented Whitfield County and northwest Georgia in elected office. For the past seven and three-quarters years, he has served as governor, and 17 years before that, he represented the area in Congress.

With his term as governor ending in January, Deal reflected on his time as governor Tuesday night during a speech at the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce’s annual banquet at the convention center.

“Thank y’all for your support,” he said. “You’ve always been good friends.”

Deal noted that when he came into office in January 2011 the state was still feeling the impact of the Great Recession.

“Many businesses had closed,” he said. “The state had cut spending tremendously.”

He noted that the state had spent down its “rainy day” fund to just $160 million, enough to cover only two days of spending. He said that as he leaves office that reserve fund has been built up to more than $2.5 billion.

He noted that he and the Legislature had been able to do that without raising taxes. In fact, he noted that they had cut some taxes, including phasing out the sales tax on energy used in manufacturing, something floorcovering industry executives had asked for.

“That (rainy day) fund is important because we never know when the next recession will come,” Deal said.

During Deal’s term in office, the state added 750,000 new non-government jobs and the unemployment rate has fallen to 3.8 percent from 10.6 percent.

Deal also touted the Appalachian Regional Port, which opened this summer in northern Murray County and links by rail to the Port of Savannah.

“It gives us the opportunity to better utilize the Port of Savannah,” he said.

Deal also noted that the state has made investments in the Technical College System of Georgia, including funding for an expansion of Georgia Northwestern Technical College’s Whitfield Murray Campus in Dalton. That expansion is slated to open next year.

Deal has also been a leader in criminal justice reform, including job training and education for inmates to help them transition back into society and the expansion of accountability courts, such as drug courts and mental health courts.

Deal said the recidivism rate, the rate at which offenders reoffend, is just 2 percent for those who complete an accountability court program, compared to 33 percent for those who come out of prison.

State Sen. Chuck Payne, R-Dalton, said criminal justice reform is one of Deal’s greatest accomplishments.

“It doesn’t do us any good just to lock up everybody,” said Payne, who retired from the state juvenile justice system. “I saw that in juvenile justice. You can send a kid down to (detention in) south Georgia, away from his family and lock him up with other troubled kids. That’s not going to change him for the better. In fact, he’s probably just going to learn new ways to mess up. The governor realized that there are people we can reach and change and we have to identify them and reach out to them.”

The Conasauga Judicial Circuit, which covers Whitfield and Murray counties, was a pioneer in accountability courts. Judge Jack Partain, now retired to senior status, started Drug Court here in 2002.

“If it had not been for the governor, accountability courts would not be where they are today,” Partain said. “We now have an accountability court in every circuit in this state.”

And many circuits have more than one such court, In addition to Drug Court, for instance, the Conasauga Judicial Circuit now has a Domestic Violence Court and will be adding a Mental Health Court next month.

Carpet and Rug Institute President Joe Yarbrough announced that organization will be endowing a scholarship in Deal’s name at Georgia Northwestern Technical College.

“He has been a great governor,” Yarbrough said. “I believe history will regard him as one of our state’s greatest governors. I personally feel he has been our state’s greatest governor.”

Chamber officials recognized Kimberlie Mason, CEO of Quality Staffing, as their Small Business Person of the Year, and Tim Rowe, manager of Dalton Funeral Home, as their Ambassador of the Year.