4-3-717 - Grants and loans.
4-3-717. Grants and loans.
(a) FastTrack infrastructure development and training grants from the FastTrack fund shall be made only where there is a commitment by a responsible official in an eligible business for the creation or retention of private sector jobs and private investment, or where the commissioner of economic and community development determines that such investment will have a direct impact on employment and investment opportunities in the future.
(b) (1) FastTrack industrial infrastructure and industrial site preparation grants or loans to assist eligible businesses may be made only to local governments or to their economic development organizations or other political subdivisions of the state.
(2) Infrastructure grants may not be applied to private land or to land that is expected to become privately owned.
(c) FastTrack industrial training grants from the FastTrack fund shall be awarded only to eligible businesses for industrial training under the following conditions:
(1) To support the training of new employees for locating or expanding industries; and
(2) To support the retraining of existing employees where retraining is required by the installation of new machinery or production processes.
(d) The total amount of FastTrack grants or loans made pursuant to these programs shall not exceed seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000) per eligible business within any three (3) year period beginning July 1, 2005, unless approved by the state funding board. The state funding board is authorized to establish, by policy or action, the process by which the commissioner of economic and community development shall seek and receive approval for such grants and loans to exceed the dollar limitation.
(e) In determining the level of grant assistance for infrastructure and site preparation consideration shall be given to local ability-to-pay with areas of lesser ability being eligible for higher grant rates.
(f) As used in §§ 4-3-715, 4-3-716 and this section, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1) Eligible business means:
(A) Manufacturing and other types of economic activities which export more than half of their products or services outside of Tennessee;
(B) Businesses where more than half of the business' products or services enter into the production of exported products;
(C) Businesses where the uses of the business' products primarily result in import substitution on the replacement of imported products or services with those produced in the state; or
(D) Other types of economic activity, including, but not limited to, research funding, technology projects and other projects that contribute significantly to community development education as determined by the commissioner of economic and community development to have a beneficial impact on the economy of the state; and
(2) Industrial Infrastructure includes, but is not limited to, water, wastewater, or transportation systems, line extensions or industrial site preparation where it is demonstrated that such infrastructure improvements are necessary for the location or expansion of business or industry. Industrial infrastructure also means significant technological improvements, including, but not limited to, digital switches, fiber optic cabling or other technological improvements determined by the commissioner of economic and community development to have a beneficial impact on the economy of this state.
[Acts 2005, ch. 233, § 4.]