Colfax receives Main Street tax funds, lobbying for increased cap

Main Street tax incentives have been pledged, and Colfax received more than $21,000 in pledges from three businesses this year. That, combined with a $2,500 grant from Umpqua Bank, will help the Colfax Downtown Association establish its storefront project grant fund.

“It’s going to spruce up downtown,” said Valoree Gregory, Colfax unified executive director. “It’s an investment.”

The storefront project grant will be used to help businesses and building owners in the Main Street corridor with funding for storefront improvements from the business taxes.

“The businesses who pledged their taxes, they pay us directly, and then I let the Main Street program know, and they let the Department of Revenue know,” Gregory explained.

The Downtown Association will be accepting applications for funding, and businesses and building owners are expected to pitch in 25 percent to be eligible for a grant. For example, if improvements are going to cost $1,250, a business or building owner would need to pitch in $250 in order to be eligible for a $1,000 grant.

Gregory said the Downtown Association is hoping the storefront project grant fund helps to improve the look of Main Street and attract new businesses here.

“The more we spruce up downtown, the more businesses we get downtown,” she said. “And in the end, it will help businesses to grow.”

A committee, composed of people who do not operate a business in the Main Street corridor, will review applications as they are received and make the decision on awarding grants.

“We’ll let them choose,” said Gregory. “More than likely , we’re going to be able to help out most people who apply.”

Applications for the storefront project grant can be found on http://www.explorecolfax.com.

Lobbying the

Legislature

As part of the state Main Street Program businesses can pledge their business and operation (B&O) taxes to be paid to the Downtown Association, and the business in return receives a tax credit up to 75 percent for the next year.

The three businesses combined which were able to pledge their B&O tax credits to the Downtown Association will be eligible for approximately $15,750 in tax credits next year.

Each year, the Main Street Program – through the state Department of Revenue – offers the tax credit incentives for businesses in Main Street communities. The program caps out at $1.5 million in incentives to the 34 communities statewide enrolled in the program. Additionally, each community is limited to $133,000 in credits.

“This year was way more cut throat than last year,” said Gregory. Last year, Colfax did not even get in on the funding, as all of the incentives were gone before businesses here could apply.

The incentives are distributed on a first come, first served basis, and applications went live on Jan. 1 for businesses to make their pledges. Prior to the application launch, the Downtown Association had been working to educate business owners about the process and encouraged them to have their applications ready to go first thing on Jan. 1.

Even with businesses having worked ahead, only three Colfax businesses got in on time.

“I had seven businesses that didn’t get in,” said Gregory. “We guessed that if they had gotten in, we would have gotten around $50,000.”

All of the incentives were gone by 6 a.m. on Jan. 1. The application went live at midnight.

“$1.5 million was gone in six hours,” said Gregory.

Of the 34 communities in the program, some of them are much larger than Colfax.

“We’re competing with Issaquah and Kent and Vancouver, and how many businesses do they have?” said Gregory. “In one shot, they can get $133,000 from one person, whereas we would have to go to maybe 30 people to max out.”

The Main Street communities are now asking the legislature for more funding to be pledged to the program. In January, all 34 communities enrolled in the program traveled to Olympia to ask for the cap to be raised from $1.5 million to $5 million.

“It’s important for our small towns,” said Gregory. “It’s one of the key ways we’re going to bring these downtowns back into play.”

Two bills are now in the system for consideration. Senate Bill 5135 and House Bill 1343 are intended to raise the cap to $5 million as well as change the nature of the program from first come, first served to a more equal allocation. The bills were both introduced last month.

Gregory explained that the bill to change to allocation process would, for example, give each community the opportunity to receive up to $100,000 in tax credit incentives from January through March. If a community is unable to meet the $100,000 cap by the end of the three-month period, then the funds would be released to be distributed through the entire program, up to $250,000 per community.

“If you can’t make it, then we’ll open up the money and have it be used by other communities,” she said. “It will make it more fair.”

Gregory said if the cap is unable to be raised, the communities are at least hoping for the process to be changed.