State: Local enterprise zones will get approval in 2016

Illinois will reinstate 49 enterprise zones — including three in Madison County and another for Clinton County — that were previously approved by the state but were put on hold due to the state’s ongoing budget impasse.

All the enterprise zones will officially be certified by the state on Jan. 1, 2016, Lyndsey Walters, a spokesperson with the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, confirmed on Friday.

In November 2014, the Madison County Board approved the creation of the Madison County Discovery Enterprise Zone, which will encompass Highland, Collinsville, Glen Carbon, Maryville, St. Jacob and Troy.

The board also approved extending the Southwestern and Riverbend Enterprise Zones. The Southwestern Enterprise Zone was first established in 1985 and includes Granite City, Madison and Venice. The Riverbend Enterprise Zone was formed in 1986 and includes portions of Alton, Bethalto, East Alton, Hartford, Roxana, South Roxana and Wood River.

The Clinton County Enterprise Zone will include Albers, Aviston, Beckemeyer, Breese, Carlyle, Damansville, Germantown, New Baden and Trenton.

Enterprise zones are intended to stimulate business and industrial growth and retention in targeted areas by allowing local governments to negotiate additional incentives with companies that, in turn, promise to create new jobs.

Under Madison County’s current enterprise zone program, the county offers to business within their enterprise zones property tax abatement, sales tax exemption on any building materials used in building or renovating property within the zones, tax exemptions on machinery and equipment for those business costs, and a utility tax exemption on gas, electricity, and administrative charges.

But approval of such zones in a two-fold process. First, local governments must give their OK. Then, the state must sign off on them. However, the process has been held up in Springfield due to the state’s lingering budget issues.

In August, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (IL DCEO), the state economic development agency that approves sales tax breaks for construction materials, said it could not officially certify the previously approved enterprise zones because of the ongoing budget impasse.

However, IL DCEO announced late last week that the tax incentives are no longer hold as first-term Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and majority Democratic lawmakers continue to squabble over the absence of a state spending plan in the fiscal year that began July 1.

Highland City Manager Mark Latham said the Madison County Discovery Enterprise Zone has been trying to get an enterprise zone established in Highland for more than 10 years.

“The enterprise zone will give us one more tool in our toolbox for economic development,” he said.

This story was originally published December 4, 2015 at 5:08 AM with the headline "State: Local enterprise zones will get approval in 2016."