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The Iowa legislature concluded its business Friday, June 5th after 35 days of overtime.

As far as TAI initiatives go, this session can be summed up as “better late than never”.  TAI had two specific initiatives heading into the session that began on January, 12th:

Clarify the STEM Internship program matching funds language

Sweeten the Angel Investor tax credit program

Additionally, TAI worked to support the Governor’s broadband initiative.

In the final week of session, all 3 of these initiatives were successfully achieved.  That sounds a little dramatic, but many policy initiatives became contentious at some point during the session due to session-long battles over the state budget.

STEM Internships (Senate File 510-Standings appropriations bill)

Policy language was passed that clarified the match ratio for the STEM Internship program as 1:1 match for qualified interns. For every $2 an employer pays a college intern studying in a STEM field, the state will reimburse the employer $1 (up to a maximum of $5,000 in state assistance/intern).  Once the Governor signs the legislation, the Iowa Economic Development authority board must approve, notice and file the draft administrative rules.  Unfortunately the earliest I see these becoming effective is toward the end of August.  However, we did make the policy change retroactive to July 1, 2014.  This means that if you apply and contract with IEDA for qualified interns that earned wages as far back as July 1, 2014, you can seek the 50% reimbursement (up to $5,000/intern).  There will be per company limits on state assistance of $100,000.  I will be closely following the rules process and publishing updates as this unfolds.  Stay tuned.

STEM Internships funding (Senate File 499- IEDA Budget)

During the 2014 legislative session we secured $1,000,000 for the program in FY2015.  Because employers have not been able to utilize the program until we passed the policy clarification, there was no appropriation for FY2016 but we were successful in getting the legislature to budget an additional $500,000 for FY2017.  

Angel Investor Tax Credit changes (Senate File 510- Standings appropriations bill)

Due to budget pressures this item became fairly controversial.  In the end, our allies in both the house and senate found a way to make improvements to Iowa’s angel tax credit program, with a few caveats to score a zero fiscal impact on the FY2016 budget.  Investments made in 2015 by individual (not institutions) angel investors into qualified businesses are eligible for the new credit, but the certificates will not be issued until the fall of 2016.  However, these new credits are for 25% of the investment (up from 20%) and they are also refundable (the current program credits are not refundable).  There are limits of $100,000 per investor and $500,000 per qualified business.  The program has a limit of $2,000,000 annually under the IEDA tax credit cap.  Under the existing 20% nonrefundable credit investors were only utilizing $500,000 annually through this program.

Broadband Initiative/Cell Tower Siting (House File 655)

On the second to last day of the session, the Governor’s broadband initiative found a home inside a bill the house had passed regarding uniform rules and local authority limitations on new cell tower siting.  The broadband language offers 10 years of property tax breaks for deployment of fiber to underserved areas.  Companies have 5 years to put in broadband infrastructure to take advantage of the property tax exemption, and the cell tower siting act sunsets in 5 years.  

Stay Plugged In

I am aiming to get around the state some and hit a few tech brews and tech town halls yet this year.  Please reach out if you have specific questions, thoughts, or especially ideas on topics that TAI should advocate for in the future.