As of late 2005, there were 10 Enhanced Enterprise Zones (EEZ) in Missouri and more on the way. One of those forthcoming zones may be in Charleston, Mississippi County, even further into the southeast corner of the state, near the borders of Tennessee, Illinois and Kentucky.
   Located near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, as well as the confluence of I- 57 and I- 55, the city may be well- positioned for a number of industries, including distribution.
   The Enhanced Enterprise Zone program provides for tax credits based on 2 percent of new job payroll and 0.5 percent of new investment, each year for five years, as well as a 50- percent abatement of real property taxes for a period of 10 years for all improvements made to real property. Tax credits may be provided each year for up to 10 tax years after the project commences operations. To receive tax credits in any of the ten years, the facility must create at least two new jobs and $100,000 in new investment in that year as compared to the base year (the year prior to the commencement of operations at the facility).
   Another new EEZ was enacted in July 2005 in the opposite corner of the state, in St. Joseph, and encompasses one- third of the city.
   The Missouri Department of Economic Development is looking to combine the EEZ program with its Quality Jobs and Brownfield Jobs/Investment tax credit program.    An internal report on Missouri's incentive programs released by a special committee organized by the Missouri Dept. of Economic Development in November 2005 made a series of recommendations based on a look at 62 different programs that cost the state $295 million in fiscal 2005. All of the nine "competition project programs" examined by the committee were recommended for maintenance or improvement. Among the findings of the report:
   • In fiscal 2005, only $3.8 million in tax credits under the discretionary BUILD Bond/tax credit program were redeemed or refunded. The committee recommended eliminating the requirement of the company obtaining an incentive proposal from another state, as well as eliminating the requirement of issuing a bond in order to issue the tax credits.
   • The $12- million Missouri Quality Jobs Act, enacted in August 2005, was recommended for a $12- million- a- year boost by reallocating $8 million from the Missouri Downtown Economic Stimulus program and $4 million from the state's Rebuilding Communities tax credit program.
   • The committee also recommended combining two customized training programs and giving a one- time, $30- million boost to Retained Jobs Training Bonds funding. Those bonds come from diversion of the withholding tax of retained employees, and the annual amount to service the bonds depends on their terms and interest rates.
   • The state's Development Credit, enacted to encourage the use of closed manufacturing facilities by new projects, involved $2.5 million in redeemed credits in 2005, up from $562,622 in 2004, when there were four projects, 1,097 new jobs and $55 million in new investment. Redeemed credits for fiscal 2006 are estimated at $3 million.
   • The committee has recommended that $18 million from the Downtown Economic Stimulus program be transferred to the state TIF program. According to a 2004 report, there were 210 projects active in 53 cities or counties that involved more than $2 billion in TIF funding, leveraging a conservatively estimated $4 billion in other funding.