Business incentives OK'd

The Governor's Office of Economic Development Board on Friday approved an incentive of more than a half-million dollars to help a group of Californians rejuvenate Utah's video game programmer industry.

But the funding did not come without questions.

The Industrial Assistance Fund incentive totals $550,000 for seven management positions averaging $78,500 that the Center for Applied Media will use to re-establish the digital media environment in Utah and implement a business development network.

The center, a nonprofit organization in Summit County, will receive $300,000 initially, then the remainder after undergoing a review of its progress in six months.

Greg Jones, the state science adviser and director of Utah's industry clusters development, said the state already is ahead of the rest of the country in that field but faces a talent drain. "We have the best of the population coming here to train and the best of the population leaving. This is a way to start capturing that talent and economically leverage it," Jones said.

Some board members lauded the center's potential. Mel Lavitt said it "could be Sundance for digital media." Jerry Oldroyd said it represented "an opportunity to put something behind our clusters. . . . This really is the foundation for the entire cluster." Martin Frey, managing director of GOED, said it will serve as a hub for the cluster.

But board member Mary Draper wondered if the incentive was "wishy-washy" because the summary sheet provided to board members contained no metrics to determine the center's success. She said she wondered about taxpayer money being used to pay seven people nearly $80,000.

Lavitt also questioned how much money the seven themselves are risking. He suggested waiting a month to vote on the matter, allowing the board to get answers to some of its questions.

While IAF money for nonprofit organizations is rare, board member Dell Loy Hansen said it only starts the enterprise, "and they have to find traction very quickly." He said the group has a tight time frame in order to "either coalesce or leave."

Board member Mary Rees Lewis said she was "incredibly impressed with the talent that they have accrued." She said the board risked offending successful people who could help that industry in Utah. "I think we should be real careful not to want to offend people that might be wanting to do us a favor to come here," she said.

The matter passed, with two board members abstaining.