Washington state now has certified 13 Spokane-area businesses to participate in the community-empowerment zone established here two years ago, says Mark Turner, president of the Spokane Area Economic Development Council.


Triumph Composite Systems Inc., which operates the former Boeing Co. aircraft parts plant on the West Plains, is the first business that has been certified so far this year, while 12 companies became eligible between March and December of last year.


The companies created 40 new jobs last year, with people who live within areas designated as economically distressed filling two dozen of those jobs, Turner says.


Our empowerment zone here is by far the most active in the state, he asserts.


Empowerment zones provide tax incentives to qualified manufacturing, research-and-development, or software-related businesses when they hire people. The empowerment zone here lies roughly between the eastern and western city limits, Francis Avenue on the north, and the lower South Hill. Most of the West Central, East Central, and Hillyard neighborhoods are inside the zone.


A Perfect Web, a Spokane-based Web-design company, qualified as an empowerment-zone business last year and has hired two zone residents within the last six months, says CEO Brandon Tanner. When companies located in the zone, as A Perfect Web is, hire residents of the zone, they qualify for business-and-occupation tax credits.


We find guys that are living in those areas, Tanner says. As we interview people, it is something that makes a difference.


He adds that some of the Web industrys brightest potential workers are recent college graduates who cant afford to live anywhere but in economically distressed areas.


Leisure Concepts Inc., also of Spokane, employs five empowerment-zone residents, says Anita Genova, who owns the company with her husband, Mike. Leisure Concepts employs a total of 12 people and makes hot-tub accessories, such as cover lifters, plastic steps, drink trays, towel rods, and umbrellas. She says the empowerment-zone tax credits are worth pursuing.


Anybody that gets a tax breakno matter how small or how big it isloves that, Genova says. We have a large amount of state tax to pay, and that helps tremendously.


Turner says the other 10 companies benefiting from the incentive are: Biomedex Inc., HearthBread BakeHouse Inc., Lloyd Industries, MatriCal Inc., Metalite Industries, PC Open Inc., Pantrol Inc., Willow Wind Organic Farms Inc., Ram Remanufacturing & Distributing Inc., which was the first business here to be certified, and North Star Equipment Inc., of Cheney.


Under the program, computer, manufacturing, and research-and-development businesses that are located in and hire residents of the zone can qualify for one or more of three different business-and-occupation tax credits:


$2,000 to $4,000 for each new job created, based on the level of the employees compensation.


$3,000 each year, for up to five years, for each new job created by employers that provide certain international business services.


20 percent of the amount an employer spends on training to improve employee performance.


Also, for each zone resident they hire, such businesses located anywhere in Spokane County can defer for seven years sales and use taxes for up to $750,000 in new equipment purchases or construction costs for new or remodeled buildings. The deferral can become an exemption at the end of the seven-year period if the employer meets certain requirements.


Steve Walser, co-owner of Willow Wind, a produce grower and frozen-vegetable packager and distributor, says the empowerment-zone program is easing the burden of state taxes.


Every little bit helps these days, he says. Its nice to get a little credit against the B&O tax.