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Committee backs High Impact Jobs Program to shift incentives from credits to wage-tied grants
Summary
A committee voted to report House Bill 507 favorably after members and Louisiana Economic Development officials described a wage-based grant program, capped at $125 million, that would reward jobs paying above parish averages in tiered percentages.
House Bill 507, sponsored in committee, would create the High Impact Jobs Program, a grant-style economic development tool administered by Louisiana Economic Development (LED) that ties incentives to how much a new job’s pay exceeds the average wage in the parish where it is located.
The program, LED officials told the committee, is modeled in part on North Carolina’s job development investment grant. "If a company pays for a new job that they create 125% above the parish average, they're going to receive an 18% grant after that first year," said Ileana Ladey, chief economic competitiveness officer for Louisiana Economic Development. Ladey said higher tiers pay larger percentages: a company paying 150% of the parish average would be eligible for a 22% grant, and a lower-bar tier for distressed parishes would allow jobs that pay 110% of the parish average to qualify for an 8% benefit.
Susan Bourgeois of Louisiana Economic Development told the committee the program is intended to drive wage growth rather than reward job counts alone: "At the end of the day, the best way to measure success and economic development is prosperity for our people. And if we are driving wage growth, then we are driving prosperity." Bourgeois said the grant would be paid only after wages have been paid and audited for 12 months.
The proposal would cap program funding at $125 million statewide and apply across sectors and geographies. LED representatives emphasized that existing small businesses would be eligible if they create qualifying higher-wage jobs. Committee members asked about the definition of "distressed" areas; Ladey said the committee would set that in rulemaking and that states commonly use measures such as the bottom quartile of counties by average wages.
An amendment packet was distributed and adopted in committee during the hearing; members then moved the bill out of the committee favorably as amended. Senators who spoke during debate expressed support for the concept (Senator Fezzi) and asked how the program would attract firms to economically depressed parishes (Senator Clough). Bourgeois and Ladey answered questions about tiers, verification, and rulemaking authority.
The measure would replace a portion of previously sunset tax credits with a grant program focused on wage growth; LED said the cap and the grant structure were designed to allow targeted incentives while constraining total exposure. Committee action sends the bill to the next step in the legislative process for further consideration.
