By : LIALA HELAL
Source : http://www.ifallsdailyjournal.com
Category : Small Business Grant
Local officials say they applaud Gov. Mark Dayton and DFL legislators for taking ideas from statewide job summits, including one last fall in International Falls, and putting them into a proposed plan for stimulating job creation.
The proposal for getting “Minnesota back to work” was released last week, and according to a statement from the governor’s office, “will put thousands of Minnesotans back to work this year” if passed by the Legislature. The plan includes proposals designed to provide incentives for business to hire, invest in infrastructure and train workers for jobs of the future.
The plan includes tax credits for businesses with new hires, a $775 million bonding bill to fund infrastructure, a system to bring in revenue to the state through Internet sales tax, and two programs to fund higher education in certain job fields.
Paul Nevanen, director of Koochiching Economic Development Agency, who attended the summits held locally and in St. Paul, said it’s important to see the governor take input from local business owners, economic development officials and follow through on presenting “tangible” results.
“I think the governor was very sincere in turning this into an action plan and roll it out as soon as feasible. From my perspective, you don’t just have these listening sessions unless you have concrete results coming out the other side,” Nevanen said. “Hopefully, this will stimulate job creation. The proposal is not only realistic, but it makes sense. It doesn’t need to be a large incentive, just something to help at this time.”
Nevanen added that one of the big questions at the summits involved government’s role is in creating jobs.
“It would be interesting to find out whether this is the kind of thing local employers need to have incentive to hire,” he said. “A lot of it is confidence and timing — if you feel your business is starting to pick up and the overall economy seems to be stronger.”
International Falls Chamber of Commerce President Faye Whitbeck said the community welcomes any initiatives to help businesses.
“He’s trying to fire something up and we definitely respect that,” Whitbeck said. “Lord knows the businesses need all the help they can get.”
However, she added that with proposals about helping the economy or creating jobs in general, it is very difficult to predict if or how they could help local businesses, with changes every week ranging from cost of products to price increases for health insurance for employees.
“This is happening at the same time we’re seeing a lot of things closing down. We’re seeing anyone in a business, every day hearing about something that is going to cost them more, budget cuts in certain areas, just about in any way you can name it, your business is being affected right now,” Whitbeck said. “Whether or not this incentive allows them to hire more employees remains to be seen.”
Koochiching County Board Chairman Brian McBride said a bonding bill that would provide funding for expanding or building local infrastructure would stimulate the local economy.
“We’re working on the RECAP (Renewable Energy Clean Air Project) project and the Island View sewer project. If bonding dollars were available, that would help Koochiching County in moving those projects forward,” McBride said. “We need that money to rebuild infrastructure, and without bonding, it’s killing our local economy.”
The tax credit proposed for businesses who make new hires in the immediate future could be helpful to local small businesses, he said.
“It could help our smaller businesses that are kind of on the fence about hiring,” he said. “It probably won’t make a difference to large businesses, but for small business, it could.”
He added that higher education grants proposed by the governor would give Rainy River Community College a chance to offer more training for high-demand jobs, such as in the technology field.
“Technology is changing by the day, and colleges are going to have to position themselves to meet those technology needs,” McBride said. “That’s a spot where Rainy River (Community College) could really help with that.”
International Falls Mayor Shawn Mason said the education grant could help locally in the fields of health care and engineering.
“Governor Dayton deserves credit for taking what he learned at the Governor's Job Summit and putting it into play for Minnesota,” Mason told The Journal.
Mason added that the proposal to require out-of-state vendors, such as Amazon, to charge sales tax for Internet sales will receive local support.
“Local businesses have voiced their concerns repetitively on how difficult it is to compete with out-of-state vendors when the vendors are not required to charge 6.5 percent sales tax,” Mason said. “This legislation will level the playing field and will better enable our local merchants to compete. In addition, it will generate much needed sales tax revenues for Minnesota.”
The proposal, which will be presented to the Legislature, which convenes Tuesday, includes:
• New jobs tax credit: Provide businesses a $3,000 tax credit for each hire of an unemployed Minnesotan, veteran or recent graduate in the 2012 calendar year, and an additional $1,500 tax credit for each new hire through June 2013.
• Invest in Infrastructure: A new bonding bill would provide $775 million for investment in infrastructure. The bill includes $20 million in bonding requests by the Department of Employment and Economic Development to help businesses expand. The money would be available to local authorities for renewing old property for business development.
• Help Minnesota compete for business expansion: $10 million in funding would be provided for the Minnesota Investment Fund, which helps the state attract businesses to locate or expand here.
• Internet sales tax fairness: Under current law, out-of-state retailers that do not have a physical presence in Minnesota are not required to collect sales tax on online purchases used and consumed in Minnesota, giving the retailers an advantage over Minnesota retailers. The proposed Internet Sales Tax Fairness bill would require sales tax collection from all online retailers and generate $3.5 million in state revenue in fiscal year 2013.
• Expand the FastTRAC initiative statewide: The program, which addresses local skills gap by offering education, helps under prepared adults succeed in the workplace by integrating basic skills education with career-specific training in fields where new skills are in high demand. The goal is to serve 3,000 adults and establish 50 additional FastTRAC pathways at Minnesota State Colleges and Universities campuses, of which Rainy River Community College is a member. The program expansion would cost the state $4.5 million each year.
• Minnesota Opportunity Grants pilot program: Grants will go to people who pursue and complete short-term education and training in a regionally high-demand career field, as identified by DEED’s current demand indicator, at a MnSCU institution. The grants will provide $2,000 each to 2,000 Minnesotans for up to two semesters
Source : http://www.ifallsdailyjournal.com/view/full_story/17231507/article-Local-leaders-support-Gov--Dayton%E2%80%99s-effort-to-create-jobs
Source : http://www.ifallsdailyjournal.com
Category : Small Business Grant
Local officials say they applaud Gov. Mark Dayton and DFL legislators for taking ideas from statewide job summits, including one last fall in International Falls, and putting them into a proposed plan for stimulating job creation.
The proposal for getting “Minnesota back to work” was released last week, and according to a statement from the governor’s office, “will put thousands of Minnesotans back to work this year” if passed by the Legislature. The plan includes proposals designed to provide incentives for business to hire, invest in infrastructure and train workers for jobs of the future.
The plan includes tax credits for businesses with new hires, a $775 million bonding bill to fund infrastructure, a system to bring in revenue to the state through Internet sales tax, and two programs to fund higher education in certain job fields.
Paul Nevanen, director of Koochiching Economic Development Agency, who attended the summits held locally and in St. Paul, said it’s important to see the governor take input from local business owners, economic development officials and follow through on presenting “tangible” results.
“I think the governor was very sincere in turning this into an action plan and roll it out as soon as feasible. From my perspective, you don’t just have these listening sessions unless you have concrete results coming out the other side,” Nevanen said. “Hopefully, this will stimulate job creation. The proposal is not only realistic, but it makes sense. It doesn’t need to be a large incentive, just something to help at this time.”
Nevanen added that one of the big questions at the summits involved government’s role is in creating jobs.
“It would be interesting to find out whether this is the kind of thing local employers need to have incentive to hire,” he said. “A lot of it is confidence and timing — if you feel your business is starting to pick up and the overall economy seems to be stronger.”
International Falls Chamber of Commerce President Faye Whitbeck said the community welcomes any initiatives to help businesses.
“He’s trying to fire something up and we definitely respect that,” Whitbeck said. “Lord knows the businesses need all the help they can get.”
However, she added that with proposals about helping the economy or creating jobs in general, it is very difficult to predict if or how they could help local businesses, with changes every week ranging from cost of products to price increases for health insurance for employees.
“This is happening at the same time we’re seeing a lot of things closing down. We’re seeing anyone in a business, every day hearing about something that is going to cost them more, budget cuts in certain areas, just about in any way you can name it, your business is being affected right now,” Whitbeck said. “Whether or not this incentive allows them to hire more employees remains to be seen.”
Koochiching County Board Chairman Brian McBride said a bonding bill that would provide funding for expanding or building local infrastructure would stimulate the local economy.
“We’re working on the RECAP (Renewable Energy Clean Air Project) project and the Island View sewer project. If bonding dollars were available, that would help Koochiching County in moving those projects forward,” McBride said. “We need that money to rebuild infrastructure, and without bonding, it’s killing our local economy.”
The tax credit proposed for businesses who make new hires in the immediate future could be helpful to local small businesses, he said.
“It could help our smaller businesses that are kind of on the fence about hiring,” he said. “It probably won’t make a difference to large businesses, but for small business, it could.”
He added that higher education grants proposed by the governor would give Rainy River Community College a chance to offer more training for high-demand jobs, such as in the technology field.
“Technology is changing by the day, and colleges are going to have to position themselves to meet those technology needs,” McBride said. “That’s a spot where Rainy River (Community College) could really help with that.”
International Falls Mayor Shawn Mason said the education grant could help locally in the fields of health care and engineering.
“Governor Dayton deserves credit for taking what he learned at the Governor's Job Summit and putting it into play for Minnesota,” Mason told The Journal.
Mason added that the proposal to require out-of-state vendors, such as Amazon, to charge sales tax for Internet sales will receive local support.
“Local businesses have voiced their concerns repetitively on how difficult it is to compete with out-of-state vendors when the vendors are not required to charge 6.5 percent sales tax,” Mason said. “This legislation will level the playing field and will better enable our local merchants to compete. In addition, it will generate much needed sales tax revenues for Minnesota.”
The proposal, which will be presented to the Legislature, which convenes Tuesday, includes:
• New jobs tax credit: Provide businesses a $3,000 tax credit for each hire of an unemployed Minnesotan, veteran or recent graduate in the 2012 calendar year, and an additional $1,500 tax credit for each new hire through June 2013.
• Invest in Infrastructure: A new bonding bill would provide $775 million for investment in infrastructure. The bill includes $20 million in bonding requests by the Department of Employment and Economic Development to help businesses expand. The money would be available to local authorities for renewing old property for business development.
• Help Minnesota compete for business expansion: $10 million in funding would be provided for the Minnesota Investment Fund, which helps the state attract businesses to locate or expand here.
• Internet sales tax fairness: Under current law, out-of-state retailers that do not have a physical presence in Minnesota are not required to collect sales tax on online purchases used and consumed in Minnesota, giving the retailers an advantage over Minnesota retailers. The proposed Internet Sales Tax Fairness bill would require sales tax collection from all online retailers and generate $3.5 million in state revenue in fiscal year 2013.
• Expand the FastTRAC initiative statewide: The program, which addresses local skills gap by offering education, helps under prepared adults succeed in the workplace by integrating basic skills education with career-specific training in fields where new skills are in high demand. The goal is to serve 3,000 adults and establish 50 additional FastTRAC pathways at Minnesota State Colleges and Universities campuses, of which Rainy River Community College is a member. The program expansion would cost the state $4.5 million each year.
• Minnesota Opportunity Grants pilot program: Grants will go to people who pursue and complete short-term education and training in a regionally high-demand career field, as identified by DEED’s current demand indicator, at a MnSCU institution. The grants will provide $2,000 each to 2,000 Minnesotans for up to two semesters
Source : http://www.ifallsdailyjournal.com/view/full_story/17231507/article-Local-leaders-support-Gov--Dayton%E2%80%99s-effort-to-create-jobs
