Colorado to reward hiring remote workers
Companies have relocated thousand of jobs to Colorado since the Great Recession, many drawn by the state’s job growth incentive tax credit program (JGITC), which provides a state tax credit based on payroll taxes paid. But most of those positions have landed in metro Denver or now and then in nearby cities such as Fort Collins or Colorado Springs.
That Front Range concentration has frustrated economic development officials to no end. The Hickenlooper administration rolled out even more targeted and generous incentive programs to convince employers to go rural. The state devoted outreach and resources to help overlooked areas boost their attractiveness. And employers have continued to keep their distance.
That isn’t sitting well with the Polis administration either. Now the state is trying a different tactic, one the Colorado Economic Development Commission, which happened to be meeting in Sterling, gave its blessing to Thursday.
“We have had a lot of conversation. We want to put some new ideas into place to incentivize mutual prosperity,” Jeff Kraft, director of business funding and incentives at the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, told commissioners.
Starting next year, when companies apply for a JGITC award from the state, they can count remote workers based in rural areas toward that award, not just those in the primary Colorado location.
If they have 15 or more remote workers in a rural area, employers can receive another $5,000 per worker beyond the JGITC award. For fewer than 15, the award drops to $2,500 per hire, unless those remote workers are on the Ute Mountain or Southern Ute reservations.
The money for the incentive will come from the state’s Strategic Fund, which normally requires a local government match. That match will be waived for the proposed program.
The incentive, which is expected to become available next year, requires workers to spend at least three days per week working out of a rural location, which won’t include wealthier resorts such as Vail, Aspen and Telluride. Remote workers must make at least the median wage of the county they are living in, and the local government where the workers are based must write a letter of support, said Sean Gould, the state’s deputy director of incentives.