Business aid bill hung up on 'rural Utah'

However, he said, setting a 30 percent minimum for the rural areas could be a problem if the state is unable to recruit businesses there. "Because of that issue, we're trying to look at opportunities for us to create a mixture of the recruitment side but also the important Grow Utah business side. ... Some of our more remote locations, it's much more likely that we're going to grow a very successful business than it is to recruit a major business," Perry said.

He noted that needs in rural Utah often differ greatly from those in urban areas. He said a "wonderful" manufacturing company in Milford, Beaver County, simply needed $2,000 for a loading dock. "That was it: 'Our business is only suffering because of the want of this small amount of money.' Those are perfect opportunities for us to really provide some assistance in those areas," he said.

"This (draft) really is a way for us to spread the opportunity everywhere, which is really what we've been missing for a very long time."

A couple of legislators praised the efforts to help rural Utah.

"I think this is great," Rep. Steve Mascaro, R-West Jordan, said of the draft bill.

"If it (IAF funding) ends up being just in the urban areas, I think that that's a travesty," said committee co-chairman Rep. David Cox, R-Lehi. "We need to keep it out there. There's plenty of incentives along the Wasatch Front, and in my view as much as we can push it away from the Wasatch Front, where we're experiencing horrific growth, that's better for the state of Utah."

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