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City officials pin hopes on urban enterprise zone extension

A bill adopted by the Indiana House of Representatives would have direct benefits for the region by extending the life of urban enterprise zones that help with job creation and reversing blight statewide, according to its backers.

The bill, authored by state Rep. Tom Dermody, R-LaPorte, would allow urban enterprise zones to be extended another five years. It passed the House 94-0 and is next up before the Senate Commerce and Technology Committee. State Sen. Jim Arnold, D-LaPorte, is a co-sponsor.

In LaPorte and Hammond, large areas of those cities are in urban enterprise zones, which are due to expire under current state law in 2016.

Without an urban enterprise zone, some of the incentives used to entice investment by manufacturers, small businesses and homeowners would be gone, making the challenges of urban renewal even more difficult, according to economic development officials.

”We would lose a major tool we have in our tool box for encouraging companies to invest in our community and for redeveloping our downtown and the urban enterprise zone area,” said Bert Cook, executive director of the Greater LaPorte Economic Development Corp.

In Hammond, the city touts its urban enterprise zone that formed in 1984 as helping to create $500 million of private investment and 4,000 new jobs within its boundaries that primarily span the downtown and industrial areas.

Sue Anderson, program director for the Hammond Development Corp., said more recent successes include Munster Steel Co. relocating to Hammond, facade improvements to downtown buildings and a program that puts college interns to work in small businesses within the zone.

Other positive developments include two separate business incubators that help small businesses take root and grow.

In both communities, the urban enterprise zone extends a 100 percent property tax credit for 10 years on new investment and, in exchange, 35 percent of the tax savings is paid by the company and reinvested within the zone, according to Anderson and Cook.

In LaPorte, some of those dollars are used to pay the property taxes of any new retail business or restaurant that opens in the downtown for the first six months, Cook said.

Anderson said urban enterprise zones are a way to direct tax money that would otherwise go into the city’s general fund to specific areas like downtowns and industrial areas that have the biggest need for help with redevelopment.

”Those areas are the areas that move the other areas forward. It’s all tied in together,” Anderson said.

Find the full article at: http://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/city-officials-pin-hopes-on-urban-enterprise-zone-extension/article_58d08c2d-05d0-5238-a78c-6d3c842021c8.html