 From Site Selection magazine, November 2003 
U.S. LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
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Massachusetts
As part of Gov. Mitt Romney's "Reform, Restructure and Revitalize" legislative package, the Investment Tax Credit has been extended for five years to 2009 and the Affordable Housing Trust has received funding of $70 million. Also, an executive-level Office of Economic Development has been created.
Michigan
The legislature and Gov. Jennifer Granholm authorized further Agriculture Renaissance Zones, intended to encourage the growth of food processing companies by offering tax breaks for a period of up to 15 years. Ten new zones added this year bring the total number to 20. The state granted $10 million to Western Michigan University for its new Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center. The funding was authorized with the express purpose of retaining and fostering the talent and expertise cultivated at Pfizer Corp.
Minnesota
The new Job Opportunity Building Zones (JOBZ) program creates 10 zones of up to 5,000 acres (2,025 hectares) each where corporate income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes and taxes on investment earnings will be waived. A similar zone program has been set up to support biotech clusters. A business infrastructure grant program has been established. The state can pay for up to half the cost of public infrastructure for business development projects, capped at $1 million. The state's work force development agency has now been merged with its economic development agency, enabling one-stop service to businesses.
Mississippi
The Mississippi Business Investment Act has raised the amount of bonds that maybe issued by the state economic development agency to aid in establishing business incubators or technology-based business and industry. The Rural Economic Impact Program has made $10 million in grants and loans available for infrastructure projects in rural areas. Reflecting the rapid pace of corporate expansion in the state, work force development expenditures in 2003 by the Mississippi Development Authority nearly doubled those of 2002. They included the immediate spending of three-year federal funds in order to establish the framework for job training and placement programs.
Missouri
The Missouri Downtown Economic Stimulus Act helps finance public infrastructure projects in downtowns by disbursing back to the project a portion of the new state tax revenues generated by the area's redevelopment. An estimated $37 million in annual funds will be available to life sciences research thanks to the earmarking of 25 percent of Missouri's future tobacco settlement money. Centers for excellence in life sciences ar being established in Springfield, St. Louis and Kansas City. These projects will be backed by the newly formed Research Alliance of Missouri, made up of university and private sector leaders focused on the coordination of life sciences research. An audit projects that the state's New Jobs Training Program, launched in 1992, will have helped to create 87,000 new jobs and about $4 billion in increased revenue by 2012. The program, which has received a $72-million investment from the state, allows community colleges to issue bonds to fund training, then pay them off from income taxes withheld from the newly created positions. However, the audit also revealed that about 22 percent of the state's investment has gone to interest on those bonds, and could have been avoided by the establishment of a revolving fund at the program's outset.
Continue to: Montana . . .
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