Business Facilities - January 2008 - (Page 14) Program is designed to provide up to 90% financing to these types of companies in conjunction with a conventional lender for the purchase of equipment or real estate required for recycling or re-use purposes. WORKFORCE TRAINING FUND (WTF): Through WTF, businesses and labor organizations are eligible to receive matching grants of up to $250,000, and in some cases up to $1 million to help pay for critical, up-to-theminute employee training for up to two years. MICHIGAN INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY TAX ABATEMENTS reduce property tax on buildings, machinery, and equipment by roughly 50% for new facilities and 100% for renovation projects for up to 12 years. The MICHIGAN ECONOMIC GROWTH AUTHORITY (MEGA) enables the state to offer state tax credits for companies creating or retaining high-wage, high-quality jobs to locate/expand in Michigan rather than competing locations. Manufacturing, R&D, wholesale trade, and headquarters projects, or those in one of the state’s targeted hightechnology industries, are eligible categories. This is by far the state’s most powerful business attraction tool, making it possible for Michigan over the past 12 years to compete successfully for 338 major projects expected to generate a total of 94,000 direct jobs and more than 35,000 retained jobs. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT JOB TRAINING (EDJT): The employer works with one of 18 state Technical Education Centers or other education providers to design and implement a training plan best suited to the company’s needs. Since its inception in 1994, a total of $341 million in EDJT grants have been awarded to train or re-train 531,824 current employees and 81,316 new hires. TAX-FREE RENAISSANCE ZONES: Michigan has a total of 152 geographic areas designated as free of nearly all state and local taxes for any business or resident presently in or moving into a zone. They consist of urban, rural, agricultural areas, and former military bases scattered around the state. BROWNFIELDS REDEVELOPMENT: Michigan’s brownfields incentives are designed to 14 JANUARY 2008 promote the redevelopment of contaminated, blighted, or functionally obsolete properties by assisting developers who want to return the property to productive use. The program incorporates the use of Tax Increment Financing and Michigan Business Tax credits to spur private development and investment on brownfields sites. MINNESOTA The MINNESOTA INVESTMENT FUND provides grants focused on industrial, manufacturing, and technology-related industries. Grants are awarded to local units of government who provide loans to assist expanding businesses. All projects must meet minimum criteria for private investment, number of jobs created or retained, and wages paid. There is a maximum of $500,000 per grant. At least 50% of total project costs must be privately financed through owner equity and other lending sources. THE PATHWAYS PROGRAM, which is a Minnesota Job Skills Partnership program activity, acts as a catalyst (through grants) between business and education in developing cooperative training projects for individuals who are at or below 200% of federal poverty guidelines or who are making the transition from public assistance to the workforce. Up to $400,000 per grant can be awarded for a project. THE BORDER-CITIES ENTERPRISE ZONE PROGRAM: This program’s purpose is to provide business tax credits to qualifying businesses that are the source of investment, development, and job creation or retention in the Border-Cities Enterprise Zone cities of Breckenridge, Dilworth, East Grand Forks, Moorhead, and Ortonville. MINNESOTA’S BIOSCIENCE ZONE facilitates the development of a research and development park linked to a higher education facility, the University of Minnesota, and a wellknown and respected medical facility, the Mayo Clinic. This corridor, located between Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Rochester, will help existing and start-up bioscience companies have greater access to educational institutions and provide tax incentives to help them facilitate their growth. JOB OPPORTUNITY BUILDING ZONE (JOBZ): This initiative is Minnesota’s marquee rural economic development stimulus program, providing substantial tax relief to companies that start up or expand in targeted areas of Greater Minnesota. The JOBZ program offers substantial financial benefits in the form of tax savings including corporate franchise tax, income tax for operators or investors, including capital gains tax, sales tax on goods and services used in the zone if the goods and services were purchased during the duration of the zone, property tax on commercial and industrial improvements but not on land, wind energy production tax, and employment tax credit for high paying jobs. MISSISSIPPI ADVANTAGE MISSISSIPPI capitalizes on Mississippi’s leading-edge, university-based research in polymer science, engineering, acoustics, and other areas to assist related business development. Types of incentives offered through this program include tax credits and tax-free zones, employee training and support, payroll rebates, solid infrastructure, high-speed data and broadband access, university resources and research, and government support. THE RURAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (RED) TAX CREDITS are taken against Mississippi corporate income tax. RED credits are used in conjunction with industrial revenue bonds issued by the Mississippi Business Finance Corporation. The credits are based on the amount of bond-related debt service and can be used to offset up to 80% of the state corporate income tax liability attributable to the project each year for the life of the bonds. The GROWTH AND PROSPERITY PROGRAM (GAP) designates specific counties as GAP counties and provides incentives to companies that locate or expand in these areas of the state. Companies that are approved for GAP will be exempt for a period of 10 years or until December 31, 2015, whichever occurs first. Included in this full exemption are sales and use taxes on all equipment and machinery purchased during the initial construction of an approved facility.
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