Delaware
State Task Force Issues Conservation Recommendations
A state task force released a far-reaching plan last week to help consumers and businesses conserve energy and expand use of "renewable" supplies, potentially altering the course of a running debate over the need for a new state power plant. The Sustainable Energy Utility proposal would create a state-supervised nonprofit dedicated to helping consumers, businesses, and builders switch to energy-efficient appliances, energy-saving building features, and small-scale renewable energy projects.
Source: The News Journal

New York
State Jobs Program to Be Studied, Fixed
An investigation into a state job creation incentive program for businesses has found misuse by the companies receiving the funds. The Syracuse Post-Standard found that more than one-fifth of the state's Empire Zone incentives go to companies with three or fewer workers, with many of the companies reporting that they paid their employees less than half the amount of the funds they had received as tax breaks. Gov. Eliot Spitzer has asked a consultant to study the program and recommend fixes.
Source: The Syracuse Post-Standard

Florida
Lawmakers Reorganize Business Loan Program
The Senate approved a bill Monday to reorganize the way loans flow to African-American business owners who struggle to get financing from traditional lenders, ending a disagreement between state organizations that nearly derailed the funding program. The bill would strip the Florida Black Business Investment Board, or FBBIB, of the authority to distribute funds to eight locally organized and funded lending entities and instead give it to the state Office of Tourism, Trade, and Economic Development. The House and Senate must also approve $3 million in funding for the program as part of the state budget bill.
Source: The Miami Herald

Mississippi
Business Leaders Cite Concerns on Labor Shortages, Insurance
Coast business leaders expressed optimistic projections for commercial development but are still harboring lingering concerns over worker shortages, insurance rates, and affordable housing, according to comments made during the Sun Herald Business Roundtable meeting last week. Business leaders said the economy has strengthened after several sluggish months and there is outside interest in investing in the area, but first leaders and government officials need to address labor, housing, and cost issues.
Source: The Sun Herald

Kansas
Health Insurance Initiatives Go to Governor
New programs for helping poor Kansans buy health insurance and encouraging small businesses to cover their workers won final legislative approval last week. Key provisions in the bill create a new program under which, starting in 2009, the state would give needy residents about $3,200 a year for health insurance. The bill also would allow the state to make no-interest loans to help small businesses form associations to purchase health plans for their employees.
Source: Lawrence Journal-World & News

Texas
Lawmakers Consider Increasing Small Business Tax Exemption
The Texas House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee has approved a provision that would help Texas' small businesses by increasing the small business exemption under the franchise tax. Currently any business with total revenue of $300,000 or less is exempt from the new franchise tax. The proposed bill would double the exemption to $600,000. The state comptroller has estimated that this measure will protect an additional 60,000 businesses from the franchise tax.
Source: The Houston Chronicle

Arizona
Recent State Graduates in High Demand
Spring graduates of Arizona colleges and universities are finding themselves in fierce demand this year for many jobs from engineers to nurses, even as the sluggish housing market signals slow economic growth. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers' spring job outlook, employers plan to hire 20% more new college graduates in 2006-07 compared with 2005-06. In Arizona, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the two largest counties in March was 3.4%, compared with 4.4% nationally.
Source: The Arizona Republic

Nevada
Assembly Unanimously Passes Immigration Bill
A Nevada company that hires illegal immigrants could lose its business license under a bill approved unanimously last week in the Assembly. Under Assembly Bill 383, the Nevada Tax Commission would pull the state business license of a company that hired illegal immigrants if the federal government first made a finding that the company had violated federal law with those hirings. The bill would also set up a procedure where employers for the first time can determine through a state Web site whether employees have Social Security cards.
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal