Effingham City/County Enterprise Zone Not Among Those Approved by State

The Effingham City-County Enterprise Zone is not one of the 49 Enterprise Zones approved by the Illinois Enterprise Zone Board.

Revised legislation required that all existing Enterprise Zones apply for renewal. If approved, the zones will be in effect for 15 years, with a review by the Board after 13 years in consideration of a 10-year extension.

Communities that didn't have a zone were also invited to apply.

Under the new legislation, the new zones are to take effect as of 2016, while those that weren't approved for renewal, like Effingham, will end in 2018. 

Effingham City-County does have the option of applying during the next application period. Effingham City Enterprise Zone Administrator Todd Hull said the City and County can apply next in 2016 and said, "We definitely will reapply." 

Hull said, "We felt we submitted a complete application, and met the requirements."

In the meantime, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Director Jim Schultz released a statement that the zones won't be certified while the budget wrangling continues in Springfield.

Schultz said, "In light of Illinois' current fiscal uncertainty and ongoing budget impasse, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity will not certify the enterprise zones at this time. Local and state tax incentives are important business development tools, but cannot be truly effective while the state continues to bleed jobs due to high costs of doing business. To issue tax incentives without addressing these cost drivers would be a disservice to Illinois businesses and communities. The Department of Commerce will continue to evaluate the appropriate time to certify the approved enterprise zones."

The only communities anywhere near Effingham County to be approved for a zone are Edgar County/Paris and Mt. Vernon/Waltonville.