FEDC Inside Track for Legislative Affairs: Week Seven–Regular Session, 2009
Apr 15, 2009
Above: State Representative Jennifer Carroll (R-Jacksonville) is the sponsor of HB 7031, an economic development package that also would revise industry code designations and provide for corporate tax credit transfers.
Florida’s 2009 Regular Legislative Session is in its final three weeks. At this point, policy bills on track for passage will enter their final committees and councils of reference in preparation for consideration on the floor of either legislative chamber.
Both the House and Senate will debate and pass the budgets this week in preparation for the conference committee process, which potentially will be held over the weekend and into next week to negotiate differences and mutually agree upon a final budget. At this point in time, there are a number of differences within each budget area, leaving the respective Committee Chairs with a significant amount of work ahead of them.
Below is a recap of the current House and Senate economic development funding levels within the Florida Office of Tourism Trade and Economic Development (“OTTED”) budget:
SB 2600 (Senate Budget):
- Transportation Road Fund–$20,000,000
- Quick Action Closing Fund–31,923,000
- Economic development tools–$21,137,500
(incentive programs such as Qualified Target Industry (“QTI”) - Enterprise Florida operational funding–11,400,000
- Film and entertainment incentives–$5,000,000
- Military base protection–$1,000,000
- Rural community development–$1,300,000
- Rural infrastructure–$1,150,000
- Defense infrastructure–$500,000
- Space Florida–$4,000,000
Total spent on Economic Development Projects: $124,695,519
HB 5001 (House Budget):
- Transportation Road Fund–$20,000,000
- Quick Action Closing Fund–$10,000,000
- Economic development tools–$21,137,500
(incentive programs such as QTI) - Enterprise Florida operational funding–$11,100,000
- Film and entertainment incentives–$15,000,000
- Military base protection–$959,968
- Rural community development–$1,300,000
- Rural infrastructure–$1,537,216
- Defense infrastructure–$500,000
- Space Florida–$3,839,943
Total spent on Economic Development Projects: $119,380,006
Economic Development Packages
- HOUSE
HB 7031 Relating to Economic Development by State Representative Jennifer Carroll
HB 7031 would revise industry code designations; create requirements and procedures for economic development incentive application process; provide time periods and requirements for certification for economic development incentive applications; provide for duties and responsibilities of Enterprise Florida, Inc. and OTTED; and revise county population criteria for loans from the Rural Community Development Revolving Loan Fund.
HB 7031 was heard, amended and passed by the House Finance and Tax Council on Wednesday April 15, and is now being reviewed by the Florida Economic and Demographic Research Revenue Estimating Impact Conference. This will be the bill’s final Committee stop in the House, at which point it will be ready to be heard on the House floor. HB 7031 would:
- remove outdated Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes from Florida law and replace them with the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes, which have been the federal standard for business classification since 1997;
- provide for an economic-stimulus exemption for the QTI Incentive Program for tax refund claims between January 1, 2009 and July 1, 2011, due to the severe economic downturn;
- provide that, under certain circumstances, any corporate entity entitled to receive a tax credit or incentive, but unable to use it because of its corporate form, may transfer all, or a portion of that credit or incentive to another corporate entity within the same corporate family. The bill limits the transfer to entities that are subject to the same tax for which the credit or incentive is allowed.
- SENATE
SB 2034 Relating to Economic Development by Senator Rudy Garcia
SB 2034 would expand the definition of “project” to include alternative and renewable energy applicants and would authorize the waiver or reduction of requirements relating to matching funds for alternative and renewable energy projects. The bill would revises industry code designations and provide requirements and procedures for an economic development incentive application process. SB 2034 also specifies a review requirement for Quick Action Closing Fund project applications.
SB 2034 will be heard in the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee on Thursday April 16 at 2:30 p.m. and has two additional Committee references subsequent to this one.
Workforce Legislative Update
Fiscal Year 2009-2010 Workforce Budget Update
Both the Senate and House Appropriations Committees passed their proposed Fiscal Year 2009-2010 budgets during the week of April 13. The bills now will be debated and voted upon by the full Senate and House next week, with budget conferencing scheduled to begin thereafter.
The Senate has proposed a $5 million cut to the Quick Response Training (“QRT”) program to restore cuts made to Florida’s School Readiness program. Such a cut would eliminate QRT, which is popular among businesses that create new jobs and a vital component of the State’s economic development toolkit.
The House has proposed $2 million in funding for the QRT program next year, while recommending a $3 million cut to QRT in order to restore reductions to the School Readiness program.
A QRT appropriation amount likely will be agreed upon by the House and Senate during budget conferencing. Supporters of the 16 year-old QRT program are encouraged to send a message to House Members to remain firmly committed to the program’s $2 million proposed funding, which reimburses businesses for a portion of their expenses for customized training in newly created jobs.
From July, 2000 to June, 2008, Workforce Florida Inc. awarded more than $59 million in QRT grants to train nearly 67,000 Floridians. For every $1 in public funds invested in QRT, companies have invested $14.35 into training for their employees. An analysis by the Florida Education and Training Placement Information Program (“FETPIP”) shows workers trained using QRT grants experienced an average wages increase of 116 percent during the first year after training.
Workforce Florida Priority Legislation
Senate Bill 1062 by Senator Mike Fasano and House Bill 641 by State Representative Steve Crisafulli, require Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) to report the same employment and wage data on their clients that is required of all other Florida employers, which includes employment and wage information by industry and geographic location.
SB 1062 is now ready for a final vote in the Senate. HB 641 has been placed on the House calendar for second reading.
The information in this update was provided by Workforce Florida.
Should you have any questions or comments, please contact Tracy Mayernick at Colodny Fass.