Update on Events

 State of the Town of Oro Valley

I did not have the chance to attend Marana's State of the Town event earlier this year held at the Ritz Carlton in Dove Mountain, but I did get a chance to attend Oro Valley's today as part of the first stop on Marana's council retreat tour. I sat with Comcast, one of the sponsors of the event, and listened as Satish Hiremath, Mayor of Oro Valley, spoke his address.

He covered the importance of partnerships and annexation of non-incorporated populations of the county. During his talk on economic development, he spoke of a new gift card coming out for the holidays, a gift card that can only be used at local Oro Valley stores. This is interesting, because it will encourage people to shop within their town.

Office of Strategic Initiatives Retreat

Next week is the retreat for the office of Strategic Initiatives. I will be going along with them to facilitate a discussion on economic development, as I've mentioned earlier in this blog. I have some topics in mind that I plan on finalizing within the next few days. I'm really excited to do this, and get some inspiration from the Chandler area, which is where we will be having the retreat.

Public Policy and Economic Development

The Greater Phoenix Economic Council  put together a task force dedicated to  expand GPEC’s relationships as a proven expert and advisor on economic development public policy issues with key partners in the business community. I got to listen in to a meeting updating members on economic development policy recommendations for the 2012 fiscal year. This included:

• A high-wage tax credit: this would be a $9,000 refundable tax credit for each new qualified job created. Eligible jobs must be maintained for at least 3 years.
• Property reclassification: qualified businesses receive 75% reduction in property taxes for 10 years. Only new investment is reclassified.
• 100% sales factor for service industries: Change statute to allow the option to assign sales of services to state of destination, not the state of production. 

Recommendations are being made with the hopes of bringing up the economy in the state of Arizona. This will no doubt be an interesting ride to follow, and I eagerly anticipate the beginning of the process in 2012 to see where it goes.