SB 831 - This act makes various changes to economic development programs relating to distressed communities and small business investment tax credits.

The act:

(1) Changes the definition of a community development corporation to stress industrial, economic, entrepreneurial, commercial and civic development of projects that benefit low- income individuals and communities;

(2) Lowers the investment requirement of principal owners of Missouri small businesses eligible for investment from 50% of the business to 35% of the business;

(3) Eliminates the designation of a "target area" for purposes of identifying areas of poverty by the Department of Social Services;

(4) Increases the maximum percentage of investment ownership allowed in a small business to qualify for a tax credit from 50% to 65%;

(5) Reduces the time period requirement for investment in a small business from five years to three years and excludes any sale, change of control, or the going public of a business from the minimum period of time for investment for purposes of the small business investment tax credit program;

(6) Reduces the percentage of employees required to be located at a business contained within distressed communities from 75% to 60% and increases the maximum number of employees at a business contained within a distressed community from 100 to 150 to qualify for the distressed communities tax credit program;

(7) Allows the leasing of certain technology equipment to qualify as an expense for purposes of obtaining a tax credit;

(8) Increases the allowable tax credit percentage of the amount of qualified contribution to a qualified fund for purposes of tax credits for contributions to innovation centers from 50% to 75%;

(9) Allows any unused credits for these tax credit programs from the previous year to be added to any statewide caps for these programs in future years;

(10) Expands the availability of follow-up capital to include businesses which have previously received follow-up capital within the last three years for purposes of tax credits for contributions to innovation centers;

(11) Modifies the definition of "qualified fund" to specify that distributions of equity from the fund to qualified economic development organizations at the statutory 10% rate shall be calculated after the amount the fund invested in the corporation or other similar entity is returned to the fund; and

(12) Requires the Department of Economic Development to pursue a revocation of the tax credits only from the original applicant for the tax credit.

This act contains an emergency clause.

The act is similar to SB 336 (2003).
JEFF CRAVER