Enterprise and Brownfield Zones

I am posting this as a repository of information about Enterprise and Brownfield Zones as I find it, and I will add as I find new information.  Interesting actually and since the city has both and gets tax breaks for those who move into these areas and the companies are also entitled to all sorts of perks, some of you might be interested!  I will try to highlight any area I think someone might find of interest that is related to us here in Florida............but this will be a building process, and I will not include info on rural as it does not apply to us (nothing that does not apply to downtown will not be included). 

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Federal Enterprise Communities and Empowerment Zones

The Enterprise Zone program operates at both the state and federal levels. Almost every state has some form of an Enterprise Zone program, however, each have their own agendas and incentives to offer. The federal government also has its own form of the program. The federal government has designated a total of 172 Enterprise Communities and Empowerment zones across the US. These designations are based on criteria including population, poverty rates, and economic distress. This programs provides funding to the Community or Zone for a 10 year period. These funds are used for economic revitalization throughout the communities.

 

Although these communities are designated by the federal government they are also recognized in the Florida Enterprise Zone program. They receive their funding through the federal government as well as offer the state incentives to the businesses within the communities.

Statewide Incentives

The Florida Enterprise Zone Program offers various tax incentives to businesses located within the designated enterprise zones. In addition, local governments may also offer their own incentives.

Listed below are all of the Florida incentives for businesses located in an Enterprise Zone. Click on the name of the incentive for further details.

Jobs Tax Credit (Sales Tax): Urban Enterprise Zones

Allows a business located within an Urban Enterprise Zone to take a sales and use tax credit for 20 or 30 percent of wages paid to new employees who reside within an enterprise zone. To be eligible, a business must create at least one new job. The Sales Tax Credit cannot be used in conjunction with the Corporate Tax Jobs Credit).

Jobs Tax Credit (Corporate Income Tax): Urban Enterprise Zones

Allows a business located within an Urban Enterprise Zone to take a corporate income tax credit for 20 or 30 percent of wages paid to new employees who reside within an enterprise zone. The Corporate Tax Credit cannot be used in conjunction with the Sales Tax Credit.

Business Equipment Sales Tax Refund: Rural and Urban Enterprise Zones

A refund is available for sales taxes paid on the purchase of certain business property, which is used exclusively in an Enterprise Zone for at least 3 years.

Building Materials Sales Tax Refund: Rural and Urban Enterprise Zones

A refund is available for sales taxes paid on the purchase of building materials used to rehabilitate real property located in an Enterprise Zone.

Property Tax Credit (Corporate Income Tax): Rural and Urban Enterprise Zones

New or expanded businesses located within an enterprise zone are allowed a credit against Florida corporate income tax equal to 96% of ad valorem taxes paid on the new or improved property.

Sales Tax Exemption for Electrical Energy: Rural and Urban Enterprise Zones

A 50% sales tax exemption is available to qualified businesses located within an Enterprise Zone on the purchase of electrical energy, if the municipality has reduced the municipal utility tax by at least 50%.

Community Contribution Tax Credit Program: Rural and Urban Enterprise Zones

Allows businesses a 50% credit on Florida corporate income tax, insurance premium tax, or sales tax refund for donations made to local community development projects. Businesses are not required to be located in an enterprise zone to be eligible for this credit.

Property Tax Exemption for Childcare Facilities: Rural and Urban En...

Provides an exemption from ad valorem property tax for licensed childcare facilities operating in areas designated as enterprise zones.

 

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OPPAGA Report Report No. 11-01
2
Exhibit 1 Florida's Enterprise Zone Program Provides a Variety of Incentives
State Program Incentives
Enterprise Zone Jobs Tax Credit (Sales and Use Tax). Businesses located in a zone that collect and pay Florida sales and use tax are allowed a monthly sales tax credit for wages paid to new employees who have been employed for at least three months and are zone residents.
Enterprise Zone Jobs Tax Credit (Corporate Income Tax). Businesses located in a zone that pay Florida corporate income tax are allowed a corporate income tax credit for wages paid to new employees who have been employed for at least three months and are zone residents.
Enterprise Zone Property Tax Credit (Corporate Income Tax). New or expanded businesses located in a zone are allowed a credit on their Florida corporate income tax equal to 96% of ad valorem taxes paid on new or improved property.
Sales Tax Refund for Building Materials. A refund is available for sales taxes paid on the purchase of building materials used to rehabilitate real property located in a zone.
Sales Tax Refund for Business Machinery and Equipment Used in an Enterprise Zone. A refund is available for sales taxes paid on the purchase of certain business property that is used exclusively in a zone for at least three years.
Sales Tax Exemption for Electrical Energy Used in an Enterprise Zone. A 50% sales tax exemption is available to businesses located in a zone on the purchase of electrical energy. The exemption is only available if the municipality in which the business is located passed an ordinance to exempt qualified enterprise zone businesses from 50% of the municipal utility tax.
Community Contribution Tax Credit Program. Businesses located anywhere in Florida are allowed a 50% credit on Florida corporate income tax, insurance premium tax, or a sales tax refund for donations made to approved community development projects. This incentive is available only in Front Porch Florida communities or enterprise zones unless the projects include low and very low income housing.
Local Program Incentives
 Reduction in occupational license fees
 Reduction in building permit or land development fees
 Utility tax abatement
 Facade/commercial rehabilitation grants
 Local option economic development property tax exemptions
 Ad valorem tax exemptions
 Local funds for capital projects
The Legislature requires enterprise zones to meet several criteria. An enterprise zone cannot exceed 20 square miles and must have a poverty rate greater than 20%, high unemployment, and include deteriorating structures.2
2 The Legislature authorized federally designated empowerment zones and enterprise communities as state enterprise zones without regard to size. Rural enterprise zones are located in counties with populations that generally do not exceed 100,000.3 When the Legislature authorizes a new zone, counties and municipalities may nominate an area that meets the criteria to be designated as a zone. The state currently has 59 enterprise zones−29 urban and 30 rural, as shown in Exhibit 2.4
Local governments have enterprise zone administrative and monitoring responsibilities. For example, local governments are required to establish enterprise zone development agencies and employ zone coordinators to serve as local contacts. Zone coordinators provide assistance to businesses applying for state tax credits and refunds, certify incentive applications to the Department of Revenue, educate the public about the program, and submit data on zone activities to OTTED for inclusion in its annual program report. The state does not provide funding to local governments for these activities.
The incentive application and approval process includes several steps at the state and local levels. All businesses and individuals applying for the enterprise zone program incentives must complete a Department of Revenue form, which requires information such as business name and address, enterprise zone identification number, and small business designation, if applicable. Additional requirements vary based on the incentive sought.
Businesses applying for community contribution tax credits or refunds must seek approval from OTTED, while those applying for any other type of credit or refund must seek certification from the local enterprise zone coordinator. Applicants must attach required documents to the forms, including receipts if the business is applying for sales tax refunds and employee information if applying for jobs tax credits.
After receiving certification, businesses and individuals must submit an application to the Department of Revenue, which audits each application to verify that applicants meet several criteria. For example, applicants must have owned the property when improvements were made; employees must be full-time and live in an enterprise zone; applicants requesting refunds must pay the pertinent taxes; and application deadlines must be met.
If the department denies an application, it notifies the taxpayer. Taxpayers may respond by amending their applications, filing an informal protest with the department, or filing a written formal protest with the Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH) or a circuit court. The department reports that since 2005, it has received 1,516 informal protests related to enterprise zone incentive applications.6
Many enterprise zone program applicants use consultants to assist with the incentive application process. These consultants provide expertise in determining applicants’ eligibility for incentives and completing program applications. They typically work on a contingency basis, receiving a percentage of total incentives awarded to program applicants. Seventy-four percent of enterprise zone coordinators who responded to an OPPAGA survey question regarding consultants reported that most or some of the businesses that applied for incentives hired consultants. DOAH held hearings on only three protests involving enterprise zone incentives during this period.
7 According to survey respondents, the consultants’ role in the application process was generally positive.8
 
Academic research on enterprise zone performance in Florida and other states has found mixed results, with numerous studies demonstrating that state enterprise zone programs had little to no effect. For example, a 2009 study found that enterprise zone designations had statistically significant effects on unemployment rates, poverty rates, and wages in several states but not in Florida.11 Other research conducted in 2007 and 2009 determined that enterprise zones did not have statistically significant effects on increasing employment in California and Florida.12, 13. These varying results are likely due to differences in research methods. (says "likely due to".....which is their way of saying they have no idea what causes the differences and could be just likely due to just aren't effective in the state's of California and Florida....my comment).
 

Most recently, the 2010 Legislature made condominium properties ineligible for sales tax refunds for building materials. Specifically, Ch. 2010-147, Laws of Florida, changed the definition of "real property" to exclude condominiums......................

State incentive expenditures have increased significantly in recent years.

During calendar year 2009, the Department of Revenue approved $58.7 million in state incentives for the program (see Exhibit 3). This represents a 225% increase compared to $18.1 million in state incentives approved in 2005. Total incentives for the five-year period were $187 million.

Most of this increase in incentives was associated with condominium developers’ extensive use of the sales tax refund for building materials.

source page 7:  http://www.oppaga.state.fl.us/MonitorDocs/Reports/pdf/1101rpt.pdf

 

 

Is the program effectively meeting legislative goals?


Low participation hinders the program's progress toward meeting major legislative goals.

To assess the program's progress toward achieving its intended goals, we examined economic outcomes for five zones that received 64% of the total incentives from 2005 to 2009.

Limited business involvement in the enterprise zone program makes it difficult for the program to accomplish its intended goals of revitalizing and rehabilitating distressed areas, encouraging businesses to locate and expand in these areas, and increasing employment among area residents.

Exhibit 5 Economic Outcomes Varied in Five Enterprise Zones from 2005 to 2009

Enterprise Zone

Business Growth

1

Employment Growth

2

Wage Growth

3

Gulf County

-19.2%

-19.8%

9.4%

Jacksonville

8.0%

-3.4%

22.0%

Miami-Dade County

0.02%

-2.4%

15.6%

Okeechobee County

-2.2%

-9.2%

10.9%

Tallahassee/Leon County

3.0%

0.1%

9.0%
BROWNFIELD ZONES
 

Brownfields Redevelopment Program

The Brownfields Redevelopment Program empowers communities, local governments and other stakeholders in economic development to work together to prevent, assess, clean up and reuse brownfields. A brownfield site is property which may be complicated by actual or perceived environmental contamination during the expansion, redevelopment or reuse of the property. The reuse of property is an important component of sound land use policy. Productive reuse of urban land helps prevent the premature development of farmland, open space and natural areas, and reduces the public cost for installing new water, sewer and highway infrastructure. The redevelopment of brownfield sites continues to gain momentum in Florida and across the nation...

The primary goals of the Brownfield Redevelopment Act (links to Statutes) are to reduce public health and environmental hazards on existing commercial and industrial sites that are abandoned or underused due to these hazards; create financial and regulatory incentives to encourage voluntary cleanup and redevelopment of sites; derive cleanup target levels and a process for obtaining a "No Further Action" letter using Risk-Based Corrective Action principles; and provide the opportunity for Environmental Equity and Justice.

links:

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/mainpage/programs/brownfields.htm

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/brownfields/default.htm

Brownfield dictionary definition:

Brownfield sites are abandoned or underused industrial and commercial facilities available for re-use. Expansion or redevelopment of such a facility may be complicated by real or perceived environmental contaminations.[1] Cf. Waste (law).

Example of brownfield land at a disused gasworks site after excavation, with soil contamination from removed underground storage tanks.

In the United States city planning jargon, a brownfield site (or simply a brownfield) is land previously used for industrial purposes or certain commercial uses. The land may be contaminated by low concentrations of hazardous waste or pollution, and has the potential to be reused once it is cleaned up. Land that is more severely contaminated and has high concentrations of hazardous waste or pollution, such as a Superfund site, does not fall under the brownfield classification. Mothballed brownfields are properties that the owners are not willing to transfer or put to productive reuse.[2]


2010 Florida Statutes (including Special Session A)

Title XXVIII
NATURAL RESOURCES; CONSERVATION, RECLAMATION, AND USE		 Chapter 376
POLLUTANT DISCHARGE PREVENTION AND REMOVAL		 View Entire Chapter

376.79 Definitions relating to Brownfields Redevelopment Act.—As used in ss. 376.77-376.85, the term:
(1) “Additive effects” means a scientific principle that the toxicity that occurs as a result of exposure is the sum of the toxicities of the individual chemicals to which the individual is exposed.
(2) “Antagonistic effects” means a scientific principle that the toxicity that occurs as a result of exposure is less than the sum of the toxicities of the individual chemicals to which the individual is exposed.
(3) “Brownfield sites” means real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by actual or perceived environmental contamination.
(4) “Brownfield area” means a contiguous area of one or more brownfield sites, some of which may not be contaminated, and which has been designated by a local government by resolution. Such areas may include all or portions of community redevelopment areas, enterprise zones, empowerment zones, other such designated economically deprived communities and areas, and Environmental Protection Agency-designated brownfield pilot projects.
(5) “Contaminant” means any physical, chemical, biological, or radiological substance present in any medium which may result in adverse effects to human health or the environment or which creates an adverse nuisance, organoleptic, or aesthetic condition in groundwater.
(6) “Contaminated site” means any contiguous land, sediment, surface water, or groundwater areas that contain contaminants that may be harmful to human health or the environment.
(7) “Department” means the Department of Environmental Protection.
(8) “Engineering controls” means modifications to a site to reduce or eliminate the potential for exposure to chemicals of concern from petroleum products, drycleaning solvents, or other contaminants. Such modifications may include, but are not limited to, physical or hydraulic control measures, capping, point of use treatments, or slurry walls.
(9) “Environmental justice” means the fair treatment of all people of all races, cultures, and incomes with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
(10) “Institutional controls” means the restriction on use of or access to a site to eliminate or minimize exposure to chemicals of concern from petroleum products, drycleaning solvents, or other contaminants. Such restrictions may include, but are not limited to, deed restrictions, restrictive covenants, or conservation easements.
(11) “Local pollution control program” means a local pollution control program that has received delegated authority from the Department of Environmental Protection under ss. 376.80(9) and 403.182.
(12) “Natural attenuation” means a verifiable approach to site rehabilitation that allows natural processes to contain the spread of contamination and reduce the concentrations of contaminants in contaminated groundwater and soil. Natural attenuation processes may include sorption, biodegradation, chemical reactions with subsurface materials, diffusion, dispersion, and volatilization.
(13) “Person responsible for brownfield site rehabilitation” means the individual or entity that is designated by the local government to enter into the brownfield site rehabilitation agreement with the department or an approved local pollution control program and enters into an agreement with the local government for redevelopment of the site.
(14) “Person” means any individual, partner, joint venture, or corporation; any group of the foregoing, organized or united for a business purpose; or any governmental entity.
(15) “Risk reduction” means the lowering or elimination of the level of risk posed to human health or the environment through interim remedial actions, remedial action, or institutional, and if appropriate, engineering controls.
(16) “Secretary” means the secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection.
(17) “Site rehabilitation” means the assessment of site contamination and the remediation activities that reduce the levels of contaminants at a site through accepted treatment methods to meet the cleanup target levels established for that site. For purposes of sites subject to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as amended, the term includes removal, decontamination, and corrective action of releases of hazardous substances.
(18) “Source removal” means the removal of free product, or the removal of contaminants from soil or sediment that has been contaminated to the extent that leaching to groundwater or surface water has occurred or is occurring.
(19) “Synergistic effects” means a scientific principle that the toxicity that occurs as a result of exposure is more than the sum of the toxicities of the individual chemicals to which the individual is exposed.

History.—s. 3, ch. 97-277; s. 2, ch. 98-75; s. 10, ch. 2000-317; s. 1, ch. 2004-40; s. 4, ch. 2008-239.
Additional Changes of Chapter 2000-317 LOF (SB 1406)
288.047 Quick-response training for economic development.--
(5) For the first 6 months of each fiscal year, Enterprise Florida, Inc., shall set
aside 30 percent of the amount appropriated for the Quick-Response Training Program
by the Legislature to fund instructional programs for businesses located in an enterprise
zone or brownfield area.
288.107 Brownfield redevlopment bonus refunds.--
(1) DEFINITIONS. - -
(e) "Eligible business" means a qualified target industry business as defined in s.
288.106(2)(o) or other business that can demonstrate a fixed capital investment of at
least $2 million in mixed-use business activities, including multiunit housing,
commercial, retail, and industrial in brownfield areas and which pays wages that are at
least 80 percent of the average of all private sector wages in the county in which the
business is located.
(3) CRITERIA.--
The minimum criteria for participation in the brownfield redevelopment bonus
refund are:
(a) The creation of at least 10 new full-time permanent jobs. Such jobs shall not
include construction or site rehabilitation jobs associated with the implementation of a
brownfield site agreement as described in s. 376.80(5).
(b) The completion of a fixed capital investment of at least $2 million in mixeduse
business activities, including multiunit housing, commercial, retail, and industrial in
brownfield areas and which pay wages that are at least 80 percent of the average of all
private sector wages in the county in which the business is located.
(c) That the designation as a brownfield will diversify and strengthen the
economy of the area surrounding the site.
(d) That the designation as a brownfield will promote capital investment in the
area beyond that contemplated for the rehabilitation of the site.
(4) Payment of Brownfield Redevelopment Bonus Refund.--
Paragraphs (a), (b), (c), (d) and (f) changed to include a statement regarding
the new definition of an "eligible business". The eligible business as defined in
paragraph (1)(e) is eligible to receive a bonus refund.
288.905 Duties of the board of directors of Enterprise Florida, Inc.--
(3)(b)4. Enterprise Florida, Inc., shall develop a comprehensive marketing plan
for redevelopment of brownfield areas designated pursuant to s. 376.80. The plan must
include, but is not limited to, strategies to distribute information about current designated
brownfield areas and the available economic incentives for redevelopment of brownfield
areas. Such strategies are to be used in the promotion of business formation,
expansion, recruitment, retention, and workforce development programs.
Created Section 23.
. In fiscal year 2000-2001, any unencumbered funds remaining undisbursed on
June 30, 2001, from the Quick-Response Training Program, Brownfield Redevelopment
10 Bonus Refunds, and funds appropriated in the General Appropriations Act for
cleanup of state-owned lands, shall be used for grants to fund assessment and
remediation at brownfield sites or areas designated pursuant to section 376.80, Florida
Statues, prior to April 1, 2000, that are United States Environmental Protection Agency
brownfield pilot projects designated prior to July 1, 1997, at which site assessment has
been initiated as of April 1, 2000. Grants shall be distributed to eligible pilot projects
under this part on a pro-rata basis in an amount not to exceed $500,000 20 per pilot
project.

 

source page 8:  http://www.oppaga.state.fl.us/MonitorDocs/Reports/pdf/1101rpt.pdf

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