| 1 | A bill to be entitled |
| 2 | An act relating to the Quick Action Closing Fund; amending |
| 3 | s. 288.1088, F.S.; providing eligibility criteria for |
| 4 | receipt of funds; requiring Enterprise Florida, Inc., to |
| 5 | determine eligibility using specified criteria; providing |
| 6 | for waiver of eligibility criteria under certain |
| 7 | circumstances; requiring the Governor to provide |
| 8 | evaluations of certain projects to the President of the |
| 9 | Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives; |
| 10 | providing an appropriation; providing an effective date. |
| 11 |
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| 12 | Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: |
| 13 |
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| 14 | Section 1. Subsection (2) and paragraphs (a) and (b) of |
| 15 | subsection (3) of section 288.1088, Florida Statutes, are |
| 16 | amended to read: |
| 17 | 288.1088 Quick Action Closing Fund.-- |
| 18 | (2) There is created within the Office of Tourism, Trade, |
| 19 | and Economic Development the Quick Action Closing Fund. Projects |
| 20 | eligible for receipt of funds from the Quick Action Closing Fund |
| 21 | shall: |
| 22 | (a) Be in a targeted industry as referenced in s. 288.106. |
| 23 | (b) Have a positive payback ratio of at least 5 to 1. |
| 24 | (c) Be an inducement to the project's location or |
| 25 | expansion in the state. |
| 26 | (d) Pay an average annual wage of at least 125 percent of |
| 27 | the areawide or statewide private-sector average wage. |
| 28 | (e) Be supported by the local community in which the |
| 29 | project is to be located. |
| 30 | (3)(a) Enterprise Florida, Inc., shall determine |
| 31 | eligibility of each project consistent with the criteria in |
| 32 | subsection (2). Enterprise Florida, Inc., in consultation with |
| 33 | the Office of Tourism, Trade, and Economic Development, may |
| 34 | waive these criteria based on extraordinary circumstances when |
| 35 | the project would significantly benefit the local or regional |
| 36 | economy. Enterprise Florida, Inc., shall evaluate individual |
| 37 | proposals for high-impact business facilities and forward |
| 38 | recommendations regarding the use of moneys in the fund for such |
| 39 | facilities to the director of the Office of Tourism, Trade, and |
| 40 | Economic Development. Such evaluation and recommendation must |
| 41 | include, but need not be limited to: |
| 42 | 1. A description of the type of facility or |
| 43 | infrastructure, its operations, and the associated product or |
| 44 | service associated with the facility. |
| 45 | 2. The number of full-time-equivalent jobs that will be |
| 46 | created by the facility and the total estimated average annual |
| 47 | wages of those jobs or, in the case of privately developed rural |
| 48 | infrastructure, the types of business activities and jobs |
| 49 | stimulated by the investment. |
| 50 | 3. The cumulative amount of investment to be dedicated to |
| 51 | the facility within a specified period. |
| 52 | 4. A statement of any special impacts the facility is |
| 53 | expected to stimulate in a particular business sector in the |
| 54 | state or regional economy or in the state's universities and |
| 55 | community colleges. |
| 56 | 5. A statement of the role the incentive is expected to |
| 57 | play in the decision of the applicant business to locate or |
| 58 | expand in this state or for the private investor to provide |
| 59 | critical rural infrastructure. |
| 60 | (b) Upon receipt of the evaluation and recommendation from |
| 61 | Enterprise Florida, Inc., the director shall recommend approval |
| 62 | or disapproval of a project for receipt of funds from the Quick |
| 63 | Action Closing Fund to the Governor. In recommending a project, |
| 64 | the director shall include proposed performance conditions that |
| 65 | the project must meet to obtain incentive funds. The Governor |
| 66 | shall provide the evaluations of projects recommended for |
| 67 | approval to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the |
| 68 | House of Representatives and consult directly with the President |
| 69 | of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives |
| 70 | before giving final approval for a project. The Executive Office |
| 71 | of the Governor shall recommend approval of a project and the |
| 72 | release of funds pursuant to the legislative consultation and |
| 73 | review requirements set forth in s. 216.177. The recommendation |
| 74 | must include proposed performance conditions that the project |
| 75 | must meet in order to obtain funds. |
| 76 | Section 2. There is appropriated $50 million from |
| 77 | nonrecurring funds from the General Revenue Fund in fiscal year |
| 78 | 2006-2007 to the Quick Action Closing Fund for the 2006-2007 |
| 79 | fiscal year. |
| 80 | Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2006. |