Extend credits to companies with base jobs

State legislators should support a proposal to extend enterprise zone style tax credits to companies that create primary jobs in nonenterprise zones.

Northern Colorado business leaders are supporting such an extension of tax-credit powers to eliminate instate fighting over major economic-development prizes.

Instate wrangling didn’t help Colorado’s chances of landing Hyundai’s $1.3 billion computer-chip plant last summer. Colorado Springs, which has an enterprise zone, boasted significant bargaining power over Fort Collins, which did not. Weld County, which entered the competition late, enjoys an enterprise zone that extends to all its borders.

Business leaders in Fort Collins argue, rightly so, that such disparities aren’t…