S618 Summary

• Prohibits the Department of Commerce from contracting with nonprofit corporations to perform site certification functions or functions of other state agencies, and requires employee bonuses to be based on work alleviating economic distress in development tier one or two areas.

• Establishes geographic caps on Job Development Investment Grant awards: no more than 50% of funds for tier three areas, with attainment areas receiving only 50% grant payments to businesses (versus 70-90% for other areas), and reduces H-1B visa holders from eligible position counts.

• Creates new "attainment area" designation for counties exceeding all development factor benchmarks and simplifies development tier calculations using indexed metrics instead of prior adjustment provisions.

• Requires the Utility Account to support job creation and expansion in distressed counties, and mandates the Department of Commerce to create five-year improvement plans for underperforming counties with annual progress reports.

• Directs the Department of Commerce to study and report on reformulating economic development evaluation models to emphasize projects locating in chronically distressed communities rather than primarily on net state revenue increases.