Indiana Strengthens Its ED Programs

To strengthen the state's economic competitiveness, Indiana’s General Assembly passed the following economic development initiatives yesterday:

• Establish the Rural Development Administration Fund with $2.4 million. The Rural Development Council, which will administer the fund, received $1.2 million to find ways to create jobs in rural areas.

• Sets up the Technology Development Grant Fund to establish technology parks around the state. The $4.5 million fund, intended to foster growth of technologies developed in Indiana, will be administered by the Department of Commerce.

• Expand the definition of a "distressed area" to areas with unemployment rates 2 percent above the state average of the past two years, or if a community experiences a sudden spike in unemployment rate of 20 percent. The classification allows a community to capture taxes from a new company and plow the money back into the company's development costs.

• Allocate $1.2 million in airport development for airport infrastructure. Each dollar could attract as much as 18 federal dollars.

• Establish Hoosier Business Investment Tax Credit, a 30-percent tax incentive on capital equipment for business expansions.

• Appropriate $1 million to promote tax restructuring accomplished in the 2002 General Assembly.

• Create the Venture Capital Fellowship Program to help match the Indiana Future Fund with people having graduate degrees and an interest in venture capital. Fellows would help look for investments in technology companies.

• Encourage the Indiana Public Employee Fund and the Teachers Retirement Fund to invest a small portion of their portfolios in Indiana technology companies.

• Streamline certification for raising early stage capital through the Venture Capital Tax Credit, passed in 2002. The $10 million in maximum credits per year for the five years of the program could result in a total of $250 million in additional seed and early stage capital.

• Allocate $5 million over two years to expand fiber-optics to Columbus, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Gary-Hammond, Kokomo, Muncie-Anderson, New Albany, Richmond, South Bend, Terre Haute and Vincennes.

• Put elimination of inventory tax to statewide referendum in fall 2004. The tax would be eliminated for assessments in 2006 payable 2007.

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