Thursday, March 13, 2014WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown yesterday announced new legislation that would provide incentives for manufacturing investment in local communities hit hard by manufacturing job losses.
On a conference call with reporters, Brown, D-Ohio, outlined details of his legislation, the Manufacturing Communities Investment Act. The legislation would build on the New Markets Tax Credit, which gives community developers incentives to invest in low-income areas. Brown’s bill would spur local job creation by extending and enhancing the credit to allocate additional dollars for investment in struggling manufacturing communities.
“In Ohio, we know that manufacturing has been a ticket to the middle class,” Brown said. “And one of the reasons why our manufacturing sector is growing is the success of the New Markets Tax Credit. But despite this progress, there are still too many manufacturing communities struggling since the Great Recession. We should apply the proven principles of the New Markets Tax Credit to help these communities. The Manufacturing Communities Investment Act would spur manufacturing investment to help create jobs and replace those that communities lost.”
Organizations endorsing the legislation include the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, the Western Reserve Port Authority and Magnet, which represents manufacturers in northeastern Ohio. Other entities backing the credit include the Akron Chamber of Commerce, Alcoa, the city of Dayton, Dayton Development Coalition, Development Finance Authority in Akron, Finance Fund in Columbus and Toledo Port Authority.
Joining Brown on the call was Mayor Glenn Broska of Streetsboro, a Portage County city that could be eligible for funding under Brown’s legislation. Last year, Streetsboro lost 300 jobs after Commercial Turf Products Ltd. shut its doors. The senator was also joined by Jeff Hoagland, the president and CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition, a regional economic development and advocacy organization. Dayton received NMTC funds to build the Electrical Power Integrated Systems Center (EPISCenter), an aviation development center which created more than 800 local jobs.
The New Market Tax Credit, which expired after 2013, drove $60 billion in private investment while creating more than 550,000 private sector jobs between 2003 and 2012, according to a statement from Brown’s office. Nearly 15% of NMTC projects have been in the manufacturing sector, leveraging more than $2.5 in private sector investment for every tax credit dollar.
The Manufacturing Investment Act would extend the NMTC for an additional three years; increasing its annual allocation from $3.5 billion to $5 billion; and provide for an additional $1 billion a year in 2014, 2015 and 2016 for manufacturing investments in communities which have suffered major manufacturing job loss.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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