Lakes Region employers could be rewarded for creating good paying jobs

Local lawmakers are among the sponsors of legislation that would extend a program that rewards business owners in qualifying municipalities for creating new jobs to the two cities and 28 towns of the Lakes Region Planning District.

In 2003 the Legislature established the state jobs grant fund, which is administered by the New Hampshire department of Resources and Economic Development (DRED), but limited eligibility for the program to municipalities in Coos and Sullivan counties with median incomes of less than $40,500. Representative Jim Ryan (D-Franklin) , along with Senator Kathleen Sgambati (D-Tilton) and Representatives Beth Arsenault (D-Laconia) and Judi Reever (D-Laconia) among others, have introduced House Bill 185 that would include the 30 municipalities of the Lakes Region Planning District in the program.

The program awards businesses grants for each new job that pays at least 1.75 times the current minimum wage of $5.15 per hour with they create. The amount of the grant increases as the wage rises as a multiple of the minimum wage. Jobs paying between 1.75 and twice the minimum wage are eligible for grants of up to $1,000 while those paying more than 2.5 but less than three times the minimum wage are eligible for grants of between $5,000 and $10,000. At the top of the scale, jobs paying more than 3.5 times the minimum wage are eligible for grants of between $15,000 and $20,000.

Under the current provision that municipalities must have a median household income of less than $40,500 to qualify for the program, only Laconia and Franklin and seven towns — Ashland, Bristol, Danbury, Effingham, Freedom, Ossipee and Tamworth — in the Lakes Region Planning District would be eligible. According to DRED's website, there is $650,000 in grants funds available.

The same bill would also extend the Community Reinvestment and Opportunity Program (CROP), set to expire on June 30, 2007, until 2011. The program provides credits against the business profits and business enterprise taxes to firms that create new employment by investing in the construction, rehabilitation or expansion of commercial or industrial facilities in communities located in designated zones marked by shrunken populations and low incomes.

The bill is scheduled to be heard by the House Ways and Means Committee tomorrow morning, beginning at 10:30 a.m.