H.B. 475 Development Planning and Coordination Amendments: transcript

Great. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm grateful the committee's taken this very serious. These are important weighty issues. Um, so this bill is simple. It does three things. Number one, it changes Go E's name to Goed. And you might be wondering, why didn't we just change this from Goed to Goyo? It's been challenging for, uh, Goyo. When they go to national conferences and they talk about what they do, most of their peers are known they have some kind of economic development in their title. And so there's this big rebranding happening at the executive branch level around all the agencies. And so they'd like to, as part of that rebrand, go back from Goo to Goed. So that's the first thing the bill does. It changes Go O's name back to Goed. The second thing it does is it creates a coordinating council around economic development. So right now you've got different land authorities. You have maa, you have the inland Port, you have Fair Park, you have the point of the mountain, uh, state land Authority. And the challenge is, none of these land authorities really talk to each other. And there's no cohesive strategy. So when you have an economic development opportunity that comes into the state, it's, it, it's not clear to the economic development actor who they should be talking to and how it should work. So all the bill does is create a meeting that, um, is attended by somebody from one of each of those land authorities, member of Goo, the Senate President, speaker of the House, and the governor to try to better coordinate around economic development. I should say, if you talk to Jeff Moss, who runs goo, he'll tell you they're already doing this. Um, why are we putting it in statute? Well, they don't always do this. So we've got a good, uh, goyo executive director right now. But, um, we want to make sure that this kind of coordination continues to happen because it hasn't happened for quite some time. And then the third thing is, several years ago, Senator Scott, um, um, and President Trump at the federal level passed Opportunity Zones. Opportunity Zones are basically these designated areas where they're federally created, where you can take capital gains proceeds or proceeds from the sell of a business or a Piute piece of property, and you can invest it into an opportunity zone. They've been around for a while. It was, um, um, it was, uh, Senator Scott and President Trump sort of signature legislation as part of that federal legislation. There's a new designation of these opportunity zones. These opportunity zones can oftentimes be a, a, a lobbyist playground, so to speak, if there's not a clear process on how these get designated. So the way the federal law works is the governor gets to pick where these opportunity zones go. It's his choice, um, and at his direction in the federal law. But what we're trying to do is have a smarter strategy via goo, um, to where it's not done ad hoc. So they're working to put together proposals around where these opportunities should go, and this bill just requires them to report to this committee on that process. So those are the three things the bill does. And that concludes my presentation.

Thank you, Representative Roberts. I'm just taking a look at the bill and it doesn't, it looks like it is, as you described, purely coordinative. I just wanted you to confirm that none of these entities that are being coordinated, like in the, in the overall, we're not creating a sum that's greater than the parts. It looks to me like the authorities remain within the confines. They're currently in it. These, this, uh, overarching council is, uh, not invested with any more decision making authority than already belonged to the entities being coordinated. Would that be a fair description?

Yes, that's a fair description. Let me give you a concrete example. Take the prison site development that state owned land. We own the land, the state does, and you have this new development happening at the point of the mountain. It's run by a guy named Mike Ombre, uh, who used to work for DFCM. We've got, uh, an agreement with some, a development partner. They're trying to attract the right kinds of economic investment into that site. It'll be good for the taxpayer of Utah, good for the region. Um, you want them working with Goo, who's got the economic incentive tools talking and sharing information and talking about opportunities and businesses. So that, that's all this is trying to do, is to force that conversation, um, around those key economic development opportunities. It's not changing any governance. There's no new powers. It's just basically saying, you shall convene. That's the way it reads. Thank you for confirming that.

Oh, I'll give you an example. There's a bunch of opportunity zones on north, on, um, north Temple over on the west side here. Um, as part of the first go around when the federal law came out that you've gotta designate these opportunity zones. One was, you know, one was, uh, designated just over here, um, where that new tracks line is going. It's a big area. And so the idea, the federal legislation, again, this, this has nothing to do. You know, we're not, we don't have any control over that. But the idea of the federal legislation was you could take these under these maybe more blighted areas and you could open them up for investment, business investment money that's coming from, um, you know, capital gains from a business cell. And somebody, let's say, wants to have a tax efficient shelter for their, or protection for their capital. They can invest in these zones, and if they leave it in there for a certain amount of years, they can avoid, uh, capital gains tax. And the idea at the federal level was, Hey, we wanna incentivize business investment in these kinds of areas. Uh, again, I'm not taking a position on that policy. It's a federal law. We're required to designate these zones. And the first go around, I can't remember the year, but you'll see opportunity zones all throughout the state, rural parts of the state, um, urban parts of the state. I'm sure there's a bunch here in, in Salt Lake City. What we don't want to happen though, is we don't want this to be a private market feeding a feeding frenzy where they're picking their special site to benefit themselves. And so this committee will have some oversight into that. Ultimately, it's the governor's decision. That's how the federal law reads. So he's gonna make the determination, but goo is gonna work hard to figure out the right kind of sites report back to, to you here in the interim committee. And it'll be a chance for us to, you know, to hold, have some accountability there. Does that answer your question?

Uh, thank you Mr. Chair, members of the committee. My name is Carson EERs. I'm the policy director for the utility of cities and towns. The league is supportive of this bill. We really appreciate Representative Roberts working, uh, with us throughout the process in developing it. Uh, we really see this as truly a coordination bill. Um, like he, he emphasized and it, uh, unlike some efforts in the past that might have tried to dictate what economic development policy should be from the top down, this bill does not do that. Instead, it invites local government to have a seat at the table at the coordinating council and make sure we're involved in the process, making sure we're all working together in partnership to try to achieve the overall economic objectives of both local governments and the state. So again, we appreciate the partnership, we support the bill and encourage you to, uh, prove it. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Alyssa Daly with the Utah Association of Realtors. And this is probably one of the only times I can say ditto after testifying through the league. And we're also very supportive of this legislation and appreciate, appreciate Representative Roberts efforts, um, to streamline the development and economic, um, opportunity process for Utah. So we support the bill. Thank you.

Yeah, I I am moved that we adopt a second substitute HB 4 6 76. Excuse me. That's an order. Any discussion of that to, to sponsor all those in favor of adopting second substitute HB 4 76.

So while my light's still on, um, I move that we favorably recommend second substitute HB 4 76. The motion is to favorably recommend HB 4 76 second substitute. Any discussion of that motion?

I have moved that we adopt a second substitute H hp Actually, I'll take back my motion. We'll resend the previous motion and Then move to adopt second. Substitute HB 4 75. Okay, we'll try that again.

Okay. Then I'll, uh, remake my motion to adopt h uh, second substitute HB four 70. Sorry. To favorably recommend, uh, second substitute HP 4 75. Uh, the motion is to favorably to recommend HB 4 75 second substitute to any discussion, to that motion, to the sponsor, to the to maker.

Well, thank you. So the bill is, is massive, but it's massive because all it's doing is changing Go O's name back to Goed. And I know, I know we just did this like four years ago, but, um, what's happened, if you talk to executive director Jeff Moss, who's requested, this is the goo name, is confusing to the Economic Development Committee outside of the state of Utah, and they're doing a big rebrand over on the executive branch side. So they wanted to have the name go back to Goed. So that's the primary thing the bill is doing. Very simple. There's two other things it's doing. The second one is it creates an, an economic coordinating council. That sounds scary. All it is is it's saying head of Goyo, Mida, inland Port, we want you to meet and we want you to talk. We have all these economic development actors in our state who sometimes aren't sharing information or aren't as coordinated about big economic development opportunities. And so this creates a coordinating council where you'll have political leadership, senate, house, governor's office, goo, uh, the major land authorities Goed Yeah. If this passes, um, coordinating and talking about economic development. So it's, it's very simple. And then the last thing it does is during Trump administration, one, they did opportunity zones. And these were, you create these economic development zones and you could drive capital gains investment into blighted areas. And the way that federal statute works is the governor has the ability to pick where those zones go as part of the big beautiful bill. There was an extension of those, uh, opportunity zones. And so there'll be another round of selecting Opportunity zones this year. And this just says, come back and report, go EO on those efforts to the Economic Development Interim Committee. So that, those are the three things it does. It's, it's pretty straightforward, open for any questions. Okay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, so with deference to, um, director Moss, um, it, it has changed. This name has changed so often. I feel like I'm dizzy. Um, is there, there's no appetite to change it again, do you think?

No, I don't think so. Here's what they say. On a practical level, they'll go to economic development conferences, you know, they'll be meeting different companies or industries. Most other economic development agencies at other states have ED in their name. And so it's just a practical challenge when they say we're from goo. It's confusing to the marketplace, and it is part of the big rebrand on the executive branch side. They wanted to make this name change ahead of that so that it is a request. Just to be clear, um, from the governor's office,

A follow up, if I may, Madam Chair? Sure. Um, last year we saw a bill, um, trying to coordinate the Inland Port point of the mountain, Utah Lake Authority, Utah Fair Park, maa. And that was, um, seemed to be wholly unpopular. How does this, um, change in code differ from that bill?

Yeah, that was a, I got, I was a freshman Legisl, I still am, but that, that was my first year and I got swept up into that. That was an interesting upfront, uh, look at how things work, but the totally different that Bill was granting land use authority to this new state land authority. So think Inland Port or MAA that was creating a new land authority called the Beehive Development Authority. That name we shall never utter again. Right. But, um, the last time, so it was creating a land authority and giving it all of these economic development tools like tax increment finance and, and, and then it had this super ability to take land use authority. And this does nothing of that, no new economic development tools being created, nothing to do with Land authority. It just basically says, let's just have a coordinated strategy around economic development, what that looks like. Oh, and by the way, in the bill, come back and talk to interim committee and let's, let's just, let's make sure we can have the debate about what we want our economic development strategy to be, and let's make sure that the right folks are in the right room talking about it. Because from my vantage point, you have these different economic development actors and they just sort of are doing their thing and there's some coordination, but there just needs to be a better discussion around the strategy.

Absolutely does. Thank you very much.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee, Carson ERs with Utah League of Cities and Towns, we're here to speak in support of this bill. We think this, uh, Senator Kwan, to your point, this is kind of the polar opposite of the bill last year, because rather than trying to take a stop, a top down state approach, this creates a council. It includes local government appointees. So we'll have a seat at the table, and it helps ensure that all the different parties who are working on economic economic development are kind of swimming in the same direction. That as a state, we're all not, you know, kind of choosing different priorities, but we're all working together collaboratively to try and, um, improve the, the lives in the economy for all Utahans. So, um, we're supportive of this bill. We really appreciate Representative Roberts bringing, bringing it forward, including us in the process. And I think, uh, goad is probably a cleaner name too. So, um, thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. Uh, Madam Chair, I move, uh, that we favorably recommend HB 4 75 third sub, uh, to the full body of the Senate.

I'll waive. Okay. Uh, Senator Juab, I'll waive. Okay.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it. We appreciate it. Okay.

Representative Roberts Thanks Mr.

Thank you Mr. Speaker ProAm, colleagues, this bill does two main things. Number one, it changes the name of goo back to Goed. Now I know, I know we just did this, we just changed the name to Goo a few years ago. But if you talk to executive director Jim Mo, uh, Jeff Musk, excuse me, he'll tell you that the goo name is confusing to the economic development community outside of the state of Utah. So the bill looks very, very long, and it's mostly because you're just seeing goo change to goed. The second part of the bill is that it creates an economic development committee. What it's trying to do is pull together political leadership and some of the leaders at the various economic development, uh, actors in our state put 'em into a committee to hopefully coordinate and strategize around a pro Utah economic development strategy. Ultimately, they've gotta come report back to the economic development, uh, interim committee colleagues. Just to be very clear, there is no new economic development tools being created in this bill. There's no new expansion of powers, nothing in statute that will expand, um, any economic development tools. And with that, i, I yield.

Thank you Mr. Speaker ProAm, colleagues, this bill does two main things. Number one, it changes the name of goo back to Goed. Now I know, I know we just did this, we just changed the name to Goo a few years ago. But if you talk to executive director Jim Mo, uh, Jeff Musk, excuse me, he'll tell you that the goo name is confusing to the economic development community outside of the state of Utah. So the bill looks very, very long, and it's mostly because you're just seeing goo change to goed. The second part of the bill is that it creates an economic development committee. What it's trying to do is pull together political leadership and some of the leaders at the various economic development, uh, actors in our state put 'em into a committee to hopefully coordinate and strategize around a pro Utah economic development strategy. Ultimately, they've gotta come report back to the economic development, uh, interim committee colleagues. Just to be very clear, there is no new economic development tools being created in this bill. There's no new expansion of powers, nothing in statute that will expand, um, any economic development tools. And with that, i, I yield.

This, this bill focuses largely on reorganizing and clarifying how, uh, economic development planning functions at the state level. Uh, including creating new coordinating structures and reporting processes. It does four primary things. So a few years ago we changed the name of this department to Goyo. We are changing it back to Goed. And so this creates the bill is super long because Goyo is referenced a lot in code and so it has to go through and change all of that back to Goed. It creates a new coordinating council. It creates a clear process for opportunity zone 2.0 selections. And then it creates some broader NDA applicability when goad enters into uh, economic development agreements.

Motion to concur the Senate amendments. Thank

Yeah. There's a change that exempts goo from purchasing print materials, furniture supplies from the division of Corrections, which is our prison system. It just will allow them to get office materials quicker. We added that into the bill.