Drafter
Clerk 03/24/2010
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AN ORDINANCE relating to designating King County a Recovery Zone in order to qualify for Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds and Recovery Zone Facility Bonds authorized by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
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STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. The federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act created two new bond programs to help stimulate nationwide economic recovery.
2. Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds are taxable bonds that allow state and local governments to obtain lower borrowing costs, through a forty-five percent federal interest payment subsidy, to finance a broad range of qualified economic development projects including public works projects and job training and educational programs.
3. Recovery Zone Facility Bonds are tax-exempt private activity bonds that provide lower borrowing costs to private businesses to finance a broad range of depreciable capital projects.
4. The United States Department of the Treasury has allocated to King County $23,169,000 in issuing authority for Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds and $34,754,000 in issuing authority for Recovery Zone Facility Bonds.
5. Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds and Recovery Zone Facility Bonds may only be used to finance eligible projects in designated Recovery Zones.
6. A Recovery Zone is defined as an area having significant unemployment, home foreclosures, poverty or general distress.
7. King County's economy has declined significantly during the national recession.
8. King County's unemployment rate at the end of September 2009 was 8.8 percent.
9. The number of unemployed workers in King County grew by six thousand six hundred seventy in September 2009.
10. Through the end of October 2009, King County companies have laid off over fourteen thousand employees.
11. Small and medium-sized businesses have extreme difficulty obtaining credit.
12. The median price for a house in King County fell to $350,000 in October 2...
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