FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 434

91ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES MERIDETH AND BRITT (Co-sponsors).

Read 1^st time January 18, 2001, and 1000 copies ordered printed.

TED WEDEL, Chief Clerk

1003L.01I

AN ACT

To repeal section 135.205, RSMo 2000, relating to enterprise zones, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to the same subject.

Section A. Section 135.205, RSMo 2000, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 135.205, to read as follows:

135.205. For purposes of sections 135.200 to 135.256, an area must meet all the following criteria in order to qualify as an enterprise zone:

(1) The area is one of pervasive poverty, unemployment, and general distress;

(2) At least sixty-five percent of the residents living in the area have incomes below eighty percent of the median income of all residents within the state of Missouri according to the last decennial census or other appropriate source as approved by the director;

(3) The resident population of the area must be at least four thousand but not more than seventy-two thousand at the time of designation as an enterprise zone if the area lies within a metropolitan statistical area, as established by the United States Census Bureau; or, if the area does not lie within a metropolitan statistical area, the resident population of the area at the time of designation must be at least one thousand but not more than [twenty] twenty-five thousand inhabitants. If the population of the jurisdiction of the governing authority does not meet the minimum population requirements set forth in this subdivision, the population of the area must be at least fifty percent of the population of the jurisdiction; provided, however, no enterprise zone shall be created which consists of the total area within the political boundaries of a county; and

(4) The level of unemployment of persons, according to the most recent data available from the division of employment security or from the United States Bureau of Census and approved by the director, within the area exceeds one and one-half times the average rate of unemployment for the state of Missouri over the previous twelve months, or the percentage of area residents employed on a full-time basis is less than fifty percent of the statewide percentage of residents employed on a full-time basis.

Missouri House of Representatives