A bill aimed at boosting rural economic development, already through the Senate, was passed out of a Utah House committee Tuesday.

SB10 creates a rural "fast track" program in the Industrial Assistance Fund to help small companies in rural Utah get incentives for creating high-paying jobs or promoting business and economic development in rural parts of the state. It would require 20 percent of IAF money to be used for companies in counties with population of less than 60,000 and median household incomes of less than $60,000. The companies must have been in business in Utah at least two years and have at least two workers.

A small company also may get up to $50,000 in IAF money for "economic development opportunities," and that approval process would go through the Governor's Office of Economic Development. Applications for more than that would be considered by the GOED board.

If applications are sparse, leftover funds at the end of the fiscal third quarter would be available for other loans and grants offered through the IAF.

Current law allows up to half of the fund to be used for businesses in "economically disadvantaged" rural areas, but it has no "floor" requirement.

The House Business and Labor Committee passed out the bill Wednesday by a 10-2 vote. It had been recommended by an interim committee.

Voting against the bill, Rep. Kevin Garn, R-Layton, wondered why GOED would want "to put handcuffs on yourselves" with the 20 percent threshold.

A Wednesday amendment on criteria allows businesses in four more counties — Box Elder, Iron, Summit and Tooele — to be eligible for the funds.

Jason Perry, GOED executive director, said "economic development opportunities" in rural counties can be broad.

"But what we're finding is that the requests that come to us are pretty broad as well," he said. "Sometimes it's a loading dock, sometimes it's an air compressor — something that makes the business work that they really need that would really help that county and help them keep their employees."

Michael Nelson, who is in charge of business recruitment and incentives for GOED, said existing funding mechanisms work in many parts of the state, but "frontier rural" areas had little to help their small companies grow.

Rep. Stephen Clark, R-Provo, said the bill would require GOED to "go out and find them, and hopefully we can take existing businesses and take them up to the next level where they hire more employees and their tax base grows."

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