WASHINGTON – Congressman Evan Jenkins (W.Va.-3), is concerned that West Virginians in the economically devastated coal areas need economic incentives for new businesses to invest in those areas. He has re-introduced CORE, a bill to help attract new businesses.
The CORE (Creating Opportunities for Rural Economies) Act was first proposed by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) in the 2016 Congress with the goal of giving tax incentives to manufacturing, health care, and mixed-use redevelopment, to encourage them to invest in low-income communities.
Rep. Evan Jenkins (R-WV)
“States like West Virginia have suffered from severe job loss in the coal and other industries," Capito said in a statement. "These distressed regions of the country need a pathway that will create new jobs, spur business investment, and strengthen struggling economies.”
Using tax credits to attract new businesses to struggling communities is not a new idea. Beginning in the year 2000, the New Market Tax Credits (NMTC) program brought more than $40 billion in investments to Americans. However, in West Virginia, the total spent on those investments was only $97 million. CORE will allow investors in West Virginia communities to get a 39 percent tax credit over a seven-year period.
According to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, there was a 47 percent decrease in coal jobs between 2011 and early 2016, with more than 67,190 jobs lost. CORE seeks to bring jobs back to communities devastated by those losses.
When the bill was introduced in 2016, 12 states had counties that qualified that had been hard-hit by job losses in the coal industry: Alabama, Colorado, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.
To qualify for this investment under the CORE Act, a county must be one of the top 30 counties designated by the Mine Safety & Health Administration as having significant coal job loss from 2012 to 2015 or be a neighboring county to a county that meets all of the original criteria, plus qualify as a low-income community under New Market Tax Credits rules.
Jenkins had originally introduced CORE back in November 2016 but it died in the House Ways and Means Committee. He hopes this time the bill will pass and be signed into law.
“Thanks to the vision of Sen. Capito who envisioned and championed this effort, we joined her by introducing the House version,” Jenkins told The West Virginia Record.
He thinks the CORE bill can be passed.
“We are cautiously optimistic. There’s no question that several factors create enhanced opportunity this year. Number one, tax reform is front and center not only on Congress’ agenda, but now on President Trump’s agenda.”
He feels the current administration will be receptive to CORE.
“The Trump administration itself has talked boldly about helping distressed coal communities, so Sen. Capito and I would point this program out to the Trump administration to say here is an area of opportunity to provide help communities that have been so economically devastated by the war on coal.”
Jenkins has already heard from businesses that want to invest in West Virginia and be part of CORE.
“We have reached out to economic development officials, universities, and many other entities and we actually have facilitated a discussion that really looks promising at this moment for tax credits to be used down at Bluefield State for a new dormitory building. It’s still in the works."