Special Session and Extra Special Session Legislative Review

Special/Extra Special Session Legislative Review:
House Bill 4-Session Law 2007-552 Extra Session
Read the legislation: http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2007E1/Bills/House/HTML/H4v4.html

On Tuesday September 11, 2007 the House and Senate adjourned closing both the Special and Extra Special Session. The following legislation passed the House and Senate and was signed into law by Governor Mike Easley.

House Bill 4-Session Law 2007-552 Extra Session is titled: Job Maintenance and Capital Development Fund. This legislation will allocate $60 million from the General Fund to the Job Maintenance and Capital Development Fund. The Job Maintenance and Capital Development Fund will have an allocation of $5 million for the 2008-2009 Fiscal Budget.

Corporations applying for this grant must meet the following conditions in order to be eligible:

The corporation invested or intends to invest at least $2 million of private funds in improvements to its real property or projects to invest that sum over a six-year period.
1. The business needs to employ at least 2,000 full-time employees or equivalent full-time contact employees.
2. The project needs to be located in a tier one county. A tier one county is an low economic/economic distressed/poor county.
3. All newly hired employees must be citizens of the United States or have proper identification and documentation of their authorization to reside and work in the United States.
4. Wage Standard. The business must pay an average weekly wage that is at least equal to 140% of the average wage for all insured private employers in the county.
5. The business must offer health insurance to all full time and contract employees.

A business receiving this grant can have the grant amount reduced if:
1. The business reduces its employment below the number of employees that were stated as employed at the time of the grant. The business will loose the grant amount for a calendar year if they fall below 80% employment threshold.

A business receiving this grant can have the grant taken away based on the 80% employment rule or the termination of health coverage to its employees.