House committee amends bill to create Office of Entrepreneurship, sends it to appropriations

Representative Joshua Casper, sponsor of House Bill 1191, offered a substantial amendment to establish an Office of Entrepreneurship within the Department of Commerce and walked the committee through the changes.

The amendment removes a prior requirement that would have reserved 5% of state contracts for businesses five years old or younger and instead focuses the office on coordinating entrepreneurship services, producing an annual report to advise the Legislature, and protecting business records of firms the office helps. Casper said the amendment keeps a director and a coordinator positions with a continuing appropriation.

Representative Bail moved to adopt the amendment; Representative Palmer seconded. The committee adopted the amendment by voice vote. Representative Osley then moved that the committee give the bill a "do pass as amended" recommendation and refer it to Appropriations; Representative Greenberg seconded. The committee chair directed a roll call; the committee clerk recorded votes in the transcript and the motion was carried and the bill was referred to Appropriations.

Committee members raised questions and concerns during discussion. Representative Ruby and Representative Bill (as identified in the transcript) said they thought the new office would duplicate services already provided by the Commerce Department and Small Business Development Centers across the state. Ruby cited local incubators, accelerators and programs she said already assist entrepreneurs, and said she would not support creating a separate office. Representative Bill said the office would be hard to measure in terms of direct results and might struggle to show outputs beyond a handful of businesses helped. Representative Casper said he modeled the proposal on similar offices established in other states and emphasized the office would provide centralized coordination and community mentoring not covered by the SBDC confidentiality rules.

Representative Casper told the committee the amendment did not change the fiscal note. The sponsor said the Department of Commerce was listed as the default location for the office but that other placements (for example, a state bank) could be considered.

The committee moved the amended bill forward to the Appropriations Committee for further consideration. No appropriations action occurred in this hearing; referral was the committee's formal action.