Text Box: District Objectives   A. Economic Development Identify available commercial land that could be used for expansion activities of existing small businesses. Establish a database for available public and private small business loans. Publicize the existence of the state Enterprise Zone program. Assist in establishing new industrial parks. Develop a district small business visitation program to determine expansion needs of area small businesses. B. Community devolvement Conduct a district inventory of infrastructure needs. Provide grant assistance to district communities in developing and obtaining state or federal grants. Develop an inventory of existing district tourism attractions, and assist in developing tourism information. C. Transportation Inventory the strengths and weaknesses of existing airports. Assist district airports and their boards in identifying available local/state/federal sources of funds to address their expansion needs. Identify major highway arteries and interstate sections that need improvements, and seek funding sources for these improvements.   Examples of other grant programs Federal Assistance · Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-CDBG-New Orleans, improvements in low income neighborhoods. · United States Department of Agriculture (RUS)-Lafayette-Loans and grants for rural facilities. · Economic Development Administration- (EDA)-Austin-Public works for industrial parks. State Assistance · Louisiana Department of Transportation-enhancement grants-sidewalks and landscaping. · Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries-boat ramps and wharfs. · Louisiana office of State Parks-recreation grants-park land and equipment . · Louisiana Rural Development-community facilities, water, sewer, streets, etc . · Capital Outlay-construction projects.   III. BUSINESS INCENTIVES/BUSINESS PLANS Note: Additional information on the Business Incentive programs can be found at the Louisiana Department of Economic Development web site, along with contact names and phone numbers.  The Enterprise Zone program is an incentive programs designed to attract businesses to an area by offering tax credits. A one-time $2500 tax credit is available for each new employee a business hires.   A business must increase its workforce size by 10% (minimum of 1) within the first 12 months or create a minimum of five net new jobs within the first 24 months of construction start date. Thirty-five percent (35%) of those newly hired used for generating tax credits must meet one of the following: (1) Residency- If a business is in an EZ the qualifying employee must live in the same parish as that of the applicant business; if the business is not in an EZ those employees used for tax credits must reside in an EZ of the same parish as the business. (2) Receiving some form of public assistance or employment assistance, (3) lacking basic educational skills as in a person being below 9th grade reading, writing or math skills, or (4) be physically challenged.   A sales tax rebate is also available on all materials purchased during construction, however taxes set aside to pay off bonded indebtedness is not eligible for rebates. An Advance Notification form is required to be filed with the state DED office before the start of construction. Enterprise Zone maps are available at the IMCAL office indicating the EZ area for each parish and town.   Industrial Property - tax exemption-provides up to 10 years local property tax reductions on manufactures new investment or annual capitalized additions. This exemption applies to all improvements to the land, buildings, machinery, and equipment as part of the manufacturing process. An Advance Notification is required if the inductile project is greater than $5 million.   Restoration Tax Abatement - is for towns and local governments to encourage restoration of existing commercial structures and owner occupied residences in downtown development districts, economic development district, or historic districts… it provides a 5-year deferred assessment of the property taxes normally assessed on renovations and improvements. An Advance Notice is required first before construction.   Quality Jobs - provides payroll rebates as well as sales tax rebates to encourage businesses to locate or expand existing operations in Louisiana, to create quality jobs, and to promote economic development by focusing on specific NAICS Coded industries, businesses with specific sales within one year, to out-of-state buyers or, to the following seed clusters industries:   · Biotechnology and Biomedical · Micro manufacturing · Software, Internet and telecommunications · Environmental Technology · Food Technology · Advanced Materials · Note see the DED Quality jobs web site for additional business qualifications   BUSINESS PLANS A well thought out business plan can help a business get started by offering steps in business organization. It can provide a plan with which to show prospective lenders, and it can act as a plan to follow as the business develops. A business plan should have at least the following information: Statement of objectives- describes the advantages your product has over other similar products and describes your own qualifications to run the business. Describe the product and how it works, is it a new technology or state of the art? Use illustrations and diagrams.   Provide an organization chart for all employees and provide resumes showing prior experience, explain if you are the sole owner, a partnership and at what percent, or corporation and officers. List all equipment needed to be purchased and space needed.  Describe your selling or advertising technique.  Tell how you are going to market the product. What part of the market share do you intend to capture?   State the exact amount of capital you need and your share of the starting investment.   Use data such as Census reports and traffic counts to help support your plan.   IV. SOURCES OF DATA AND MAPS Census data current and past is available in the IMCAL library- IMCAL is a Census data Affiliate and has available data in hard copy, and CD, additional data can be researched on the Internet Census Bureau Web site.   Census data is used for displaying counts and changes in population over time, and providing racial breakdown, housing characteristics, and economic statistics such as unemployment, and employment in major economic areas, income, and poverty. Census data is very helpful in describing population for an area to be used in a report, a grant application, or in a business plan. Students also request data for research projects…about 50% of our requests are from our member governments and 50% from business startups, realtors, and banks, and developers. Traffic counts are also available through IMCAL’s Transportation office. This is available by report from the LA DOTD, showing counts at specific locations and selected numbered intersections in each parish. IMCAL can also custom make traffic counts by using our own equipment and software, but at a fee.   GIS (geographic information systems), mapping software is also available at IMCAL using ATLAS or MAPTITUDE software. These maps can be made to indicate geographic boundaries of parishes, cities, river’s, lakes, streets, highways, and railroad lines. Layers can also be custom made to indicate specific kinds of data. A Census CD that calculates the population within a 1, 3, 5, 10 mile or more circle, after inserting the latitude and longitude of a site, can be used to indicate population and other Census data in a given area. This is very useful for determining the market size of an area. Maps can be made various sizes depending on the need, from 8x11 to 4’x3’ and can be made on printer or inkjet. IMCAL may charge for the time used in making large scale detailed maps.     Below are helpful links of charts and maps compiled from local demographics and spatial data to assist you:   Projected Population: 1970-2010 Past, Current, And Projected Populations Major Employers By Parish Employers By Economic Sector          

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Text Box: Randy Miller: Senior Economic Developer

Text Box: Click here to download a current copy of the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) Report – Updated June 2007.

 Text Box: Member of the Louisiana Planning Council

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Five Year Update

June 2007

Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS)