Bill Summary for H 807 (2019-2020)

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Summary date: 

Sep 2 2020

Bill Information:

View NCGA Bill Details2019-2020 Session
House Bill 807 (Public) Filed Tuesday, April 16, 2019
AN ACT TO PROVIDE ECONOMIC INCENTIVES FOR THE PURPOSE OF BRINGING A SPORTS CHAMPIONSHIP EMPLOYER TO THE STATE, INCREASING THE NUMBER OF JOBS AND RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN THE STATE, AND INCREASING THE NUMBER OF CHAMPIONSHIP-LEVEL EVENTS OCCURRING IN THE STATE.
Intro. by Boles, Dobson, Iler, Richardson.

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Bill summary

Senate committee substitute to the 1st edition makes the following changes.  Deletes the content of the previous edition and replaces it with the following.

Section 1 amends GS 143B-437.02 to authorize the Department of Commerce to use funds in the Site Infrastructure Development Fund for site development (as defined in GS 143B-437.02(c)).  Revises GS 143B-437.02(d) to expand eligibility criteria for businesses seeking site development funds from the Department of Commerce.  To be eligible for consideration for site development funds, a business must be either (1) a manufacturing employer, defined as a business that will invest at least $100,000,000 in the project and whose project shall employ at least 100 new employees or (2) a sports championship employer. 

Amends GS 143B-437.02(d) to define a business as a sports championship employer under the statute when (1) the business will invest at least $5 million of private funds in the project by December 31, 2023, and the project is used by the business to complete facilities consisting of at least two buildings totaling no less than 30,000 square feet, which will house at a minimum an equipment testing center for research, a museum and visitor center, and departments within the business (each of which must be maintained in service for a continuous period of ten years); (2) the project will produce a total economic benefit of at least $800 million over the term of the agreement; (3) the project will employ at least 35 new employees and at least 50 total employees with an average annual salary of at least $80,000, and such positions are maintained for a continuous period of ten years; (4) the business is a national sports nonprofit, event organizer, and governing body responsible for staging and  holding championship events and agrees to hold championship events in the State with an aggregate economic benefit of $500 million over the term of the agreement (and such championship events must include (a) at least one men’s major professional championship event every five to seven years having an economic benefit of $90 million per event, (b) at least one women’s major professional championship event every ten years and (c) at least 13 additional championship events not otherwise required by (a) or (b) at venues in the State); and (5) at each men’s major professional championship event held in the State, the business provides at no cost a hospitality pavilion to the Department of Commerce or a nonprofit corporation with which the Department contracts or both that will accommodate at least 40 people.  The act states that required minimum economic benefit amounts will be satisfied if supported by the Department of Commerce's estimates made prior to the time of entering into the agreement.

Revises GS 143B-437.02(e) to require businesses otherwise eligible for site development under GS 143B-437.02 to pay, for all full-time employees of the site development project, at least 50% of the premiums for health care coverage that equals or exceeds the minimum requirements for small group health benefit plans under State or federal law.  Previously, GS 143B-437.02(e) required such businesses to pay, for all full-time employees of the site development project, at least 50% of the premiums for health care coverage that equals or exceeds the minimum provisions of basic health care plan coverage recommended by the Small Employer Carrier Committee pursuant to GS 58-50-125.

Amends GS 143B-437.02(j) to impose a requirement that the site development agreement encourage business to partner with and use The University of North Carolina and the North Carolina Community College System for needs related to research for advancements pertaining to the business.

Revises GS 143B-437.02(l) to (1) limit the number of site development agreements into which the Department of Commerce may enter to two, with the aggregate cost of all such agreements limited to $42 million and (2) restrict the annual cost of a site development agreement to $3.6 million.

Amends GS 143B-437.02(b) and GS 143B-437.02(m) to revoke the existing authority of Department of Commerce to use funds in the Site Infrastructure Development Fund to acquire and hold options for the purchase of land for an anticipated industrial site.

Section 2 transfers to the Site Infrastructure Development Fund for the 2020-21 fiscal year (1) $3.5 million from the One North Carolina Fund and (2) $100,000 from the Job Development Incentive Grant Special Revenue Fund.  States intent of General Assembly to appropriate, over succeeding four fiscal years, an additional $14.4 million in equal installments, for the purpose of providing a total of $18 million for recruitment of a sports championship employer.

Makes a clarifying change.

Makes conforming changes to the act's titles.