The new year has just arrived, but three key players in Central Iowa economic-development already are working toward ambitious goals they hope will build on the successes of the past several years. 

The Iowa Association of Business and Industry, the Greater Des Moines Partnership and the Iowa Economic Development Authority list a new Iowa tax credit for renewable biochemical production, work on a new downtown convention hotel, globalization, a stronger network of angel investors, and added work on the fledgling Cultivation Corridor among their top priorities for the coming year. Here are some of the things they would like to see happen in 2015.

Greater Des Moines Partnership

Foreign direct investment plan
The Partnership plans to lead efforts to develop a comprehensive foreign direct investment plan and strategy for Central Iowa. Work related to the organization’s regional export plan will focus on capitalizing on globalization, in part by expanding foreign direct investment. 

Global Insurance Accelerator
Work will continue on the Global Insurance Accelerator, which has received $2.1 million from American Equity Investment Life Insurance Co., Delta Dental of Iowa, Farm Bureau Financial Services, Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Company of Iowa, Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Co., The IMT Group and Principal Financial Group Inc. The accelerator will operate in the Northwestern Hotel building in the East Village under the direction of Brian Hemesath, its first managing director. Its first class will be announced early in the year, and Demo Day will be held in conjunction with the second annual Global Insurance Symposium in May. 

Cultivation Corridor
Work on the regional biosciences and agriculture hub will continue with recruiting, marketing and coordination by Executive Director Brent Willett. The corridor is intended to be Central Iowa’s answer to Silicon Valley, California, and the Research Triangle in North Carolina.

Education improvements
Education Drives our Greater Economy (EDGE) will advocate for strong education through schools, and lifelong learning. Cyndi Fisher, executive director, will work with others to establish regional benchmarks, a tracking system and a report card. EDGE will inform the public about key legislation and guide discussions about pressing issues. Programs centered on pre-kindergarten through age 20 will focus on ways to ensure that students become good citizens and have the resources they need to explore career interests. Lifelong learning efforts will be aimed at helping college students and adults find ways to succeed in careers. 

Downtown convention hotel
The Partnership wants to make sure the convention hotel near the Iowa Events Center is built to help the city compete more forcefully regionally and nationally to attract conventions. The visitors are important to the local economy and often get their first view of Des Moines while attending a convention.

Iowa Association of Business and Industry

Expanding membership, and services
ABI, with 1,400 members, considers membership growth a top goal for 2015. The organization, founded in 1903, is looking for other types of growth too.

“For us, it’s all about growth and not just growth in the number of members,” said ABI President Michael Ralston. In addition to bolstering the membership list, which in turn helps increase revenues, Ralston would like to see growth in services.

For example, ABI’s Elevate Iowa initiative, a partnership with community colleges to promote careers in advanced manufacturing, is a key focus. “We hope it helps everyone,” Ralston said. The expanded program in 2015 will run on $150,000 from community colleges and $50,000 from ABI members. Much of the budget will go to developing a website, Elevate programs, and marketing.

The program is aimed at high school students, and ABI has given materials to libraries across the state. This will be the second full year of Elevate activities.

Building the staff
For Ralston personally, 2015 will be a chance to reflect on 10 years at ABI. When he arrived, he found issues with declining membership, accountability and a balance sheet that was hurting. Now, membership and revenues are up, accountability is stressed and the staff is growing. ABI hired five new people recently, three of them for new positions. ABI has 15 full-time employees and two part-timers. The year will bring the continuation of popular programs such as Engage ABI and Connecting Statewide Leaders, both of which are designed to keep members informed and to look for ways business representatives can benefit from 
the ideas, services and products provided by Iowa companies.

Growth
Ralston spends much of his time talking to ABI members about the economic outlook and coming projects. What he is hearing about 2015 is promising and bodes well for business in the continued post-recession upswing. But data continues to show slow growth, so no one is getting overly bullish. “They are feeling pretty optimistic about the future, but also a little wary,” Ralston said.

Iowa Economic Development Authority

The Iowa Economic Development Authority enters 2015 with plans for a new tax credit, revamped aid and a newly published private report calling for many changes in Iowa’s economic development efforts.

For example, the agency, the heart of Gov. Terry Branstad’s public-private partnership on development, will continue its campaign to establish a biochemical production tax credit program of perhaps $15 million. The credits would  encourage spinoff businesses that could, for example, make new products out of byproducts of biofuel production. Spokeswoman Tina Hoffman said the credits would come from the authority’s current tax credit limit  and would be in line with recommendations from Battelle Memorial Institute’s 195-page report in December that called for many improvements in Iowa’s approach to reversing a population decline, addressing workforce shortages, and increasing both the number of jobs and compensation.

“We want to make sure we are building up industries with a lot of growth potential,” Hoffman said.

Among the authority’s other goals:
 • Create targeted industry clusters that will help create jobs and lure workers.
 • Continue work related to the freight optimization study.
 • Continue work on Home Base Iowa, which aims to attract military personnel and veterans to work in Iowa. “We want to make this a good place to spend the rest of their lives,” Hoffman said.
 • Increase international trade.
 • Establish an online business-to-business system, loosely modeled on Michigan’s that would make it easier for businesses to link to each other to buy and sell goods. Iowa hasn’t come up with a name other than the working moniker B2B Portal.

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Legislative recap

In addition to the institutional goals, 
the organizations are asking the Iowa Legislature to act on bills that would help economic development. Here are some 
of their proposals:

Greater Des Moines Partnership
• Establish biochemical production tax credit.
• Implement Iowa Core learning standards and achievement assessments for students.
• Support Connect Iowa, aimed at improving access to broadband as a way to stimulate development.
• Fully fund he Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund, which would use a 3/8th of 1 percent sales tax to maintain parks, trails, habitats and waterways.
• Review Iowa’s public pension plans to ensure retirement security for public employees while limiting pension debt.
• Raise the gasoline tax and consider other sources of revenue for road construction projects.
• The Partnership supports giving businesses and individuals the option of either retaining the ability to deduct federal income taxes on
their state income tax returns or choosing to forgo federal deductibility in exchange for significantly reduced state income tax rates.

Iowa Association of Business and Industry
• Eliminate sales and use taxes on replacement parts and consumable supplies. Reduce individual and corporate tax rates and simplify tax code.
• Protect tax increment financing for economic development.
• Increase the gasoline tax to a fair level that’s competitive with bordering states.
• Expand broadband access by eliminating old regulations that impede development of high-speed Internet access. 
• Establish incentives for qualified workers to move to Iowa. Continue to focus on education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to expand the skilled workforce.

Iowa Economic Development Authority
• Amend angel tax credit program to make the credits refundable.
• Set up tax credits for the production of certain marketable chemicals that come from biological feedstocks such as corn or soybeans. Oils from biofuels production could be sold for use in plastics production, for examples. 
• Make it easier for municipalities to gain control of, and clear, abandoned properties.