Officials want to help in-state firms grow

The Governor's Office of Economic Development wants to give expanding in-state companies a better crack at financial incentives and is looking for guidance from the Utah Legislature on how to approach the issue.

Instead, the Legislature on Wednesday suggested GOED develop its own plans, which lawmakers will consider endorsing.

"You've got all the green light you need," Sen. Bill Hickman, R-St. George, co-chairman of the Workforce Services and Community and Economic Development Interim Committee, told GOED officials after the committee voted to have GOED and legislative staff work on solutions and recommendations.

Incentive programs such as the Industrial Assistance Fund have been used primarily to help get out-of-state companies to put operations in Utah. GOED officials said Wednesday that while current language allows them to provide financial incentives to growing in-state companies, they want more specific wording or perhaps even a new tax-credit mechanism to help more Utah firms get incentives.

Michael Nelson, managing director of incentives and corporate recruitment for GOED, said the state recently was approached by a rural Utah company that wanted to add 75 workers to its existing staff of 100. It wanted to pay the new workers 125 percent of its county median and make a $1.5 million capital investment.

"Right now, we don't have a mechanism to actually fund them and fund those jobs," Nelson said. "We constantly do bring jobs in from out of state, but we really don't have a good mechanism to fund in-state companies."

Currently, incentives guidelines call for at least 50 new jobs that must pay 125 percent of the county median for urban locations or 100 percent if in a rural setting, plus other criteria. But a new tax credit option perhaps could apply if at least 25 jobs were created in a year or if the company adds at least half the number of its current work force total. The figures could be set at 10 jobs in a year or a quarter of current staffing if the company were in a rural area.

"We believe our statutes have the ability for us to do this kind of incentive for in-state businesses. . . . It's not uncharted territory for us. We believe we can," said Jason Perry, GOED's executive director. "We would like some help establishing the parameters to see what kinds of things we can do with that. I know this committee has studied this issue numerous times, and I know you're under the impression that it's already being done, and we want to expand upon that in some way."