Facing Budget Woes, Colorado Passes Economic Development Bills

Even though Colorado faced a nearly $1.5 billion budget shortfall this year, the state didn't give up on pursuing economic development measures.

In fact, at a time when the state’s tax revenues are coming in much lower than expected and there’s just less money to go around, many in Colorado argue that now is the most important time for economic development.

Todd Saliman, director of the state’s Office of Planning and Budget, is one of those believers.

“One of the things that we put a lot of effort into this year is focusing on economic development and trying to provide incentives for job creation—and Colorado has been limited in the amount of incentives it could offer to potential businesses that were wanting to locate in Colorado just because of our budget constraints,” Saliman said in an interview with State News.

“But this year, with support from the legislature we were able to pass several bills that are going to give us really a much better ability to attract new jobs to the state,” he said.

Those bills include:
•    House Bill 1001 creates a Colorado job growth incentive tax credit.
•    House Bill 1010 wants to promote the state as a location for film production.
•    House Bill 1035 creates a sales tax refund for biotechnology, clean technology and medical devices.
•    House Bill 1105 aims to create the Colorado innovation investment tax credit applied against state income taxes.
•    House Bill 1149 gives homeowners the option to “prewire” their new home for solar when it’s being built or to have a solar consultation.
•    House Bill 1298 provides economic development incentives for the state’s trucking industry.
•    Senate Bill 31 creates the Clean Technology Discovery Evaluation Grant Program. 
•    Senate Bill 67  increases the availability of credit to small business in Colorado.
•    Senate Bill 108 seeks to make sure the state’s transportation network is funded to allow for economic recovery.
•    Senate Bill 171 creates the Colorado Customized Training Program (a function of the state board of community colleges and occupational education) to train future employees and to help businesses train potential employees.
•    Senate Bill 173 allows the state to partially finance large regional tourism projects with a portion of the state sales tax revenue above an existing base amount.

Source: Colorado legislature Web site.