Economic vitality includes studying use-tax rebate

BOULDER ? The city of Boulder?s interim economic vitality coordinator will be responsible for a number of new business assistance initiatives, including helping to craft a possible use-tax rebate.

Sean Maher, recently named to the post, said he will be talking to the business community and crafting a package to take to Boulder?s city council.

City Manager Frank Bruno envisions a program similar to that in Fort Collins, which is structured to respond to local firms that are expanding.

?It says as a Ball or Roche expands and buys new equipment it will have a use tax,? Bruno said. ?Perhaps there could be a mechanism to share back some of that use tax to encourage investment in Boulder.?

Bruno developed Fort Collins? use-tax rebate program during his 13-year career as economic development director and assistant city manager there.

Other business assistance programs Maher will be working on include a ?tired building program.? The program, which would encourage and make it easier for property owners to renovate or redevelop office properties, is an initiative discussed in Boulder Economic Vitality Work Plan, published in April.

Maher said he will ?formalize? the currently informal client-care program that worked with companies including Carrier Access Corp. and Array BioPharma Inc. when they were considering moving out of Boulder. ?We want to make sure we see businesses in the key industries, not just the big ones,? he said.

Maher also will continue work on the natural foods and products initiative and explore a tourism initiative, Bruno said.

Maher will supervise the city manager?s summer intern, Joe Neguse, an economics student at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Neguse, whose primary responsibility is conducting research, will be paid $1,000 per month, Bruno said.

In a contract between the city and Boulder Economic Council, which still is being worked out, Maher will work with different city staff members on economic vitality programs.

Michael Stumpf, the city?s first economic vitality coordinator, resigned May 3 after nine months on the job, and Bruno proposed contracting some of projects Stumpf has been working on to the Boulder Economic Council, often referred to as the BEC.

Maher will continue as the BEC?s director and split his time between the two jobs. His office will remain at the Boulder Chamber of Commerce building.

The proposed four- to six-month contract between the city and the BEC had not been signed as of press time, so neither Bruno nor Maher could comment on the cost to the city. Bruno indicated, however, that the city would pay the BEC directly out of Boulder?s five-year, $2.9 million economic vitality fund approved by city council last year. The funding would be used to pay part of Maher?s salary.

?Michael?s leaving created a moment in time that could be viewed as a problem or an opportunity,? Bruno said. ?This moment that we have may be a more traditional economic development model: One organization providing economic development, and many elements of the community contributing and sharing in the resources and the task.?

Bruno said during the nine months of Stumpf?s tenure ?a big zipper? started pulling together a variety of initiatives between the BEC and the city including the formation of the Boulder Innovation Center, the Boulder Economic Vitality Advisory Board?s Natural Products Task Force, the Downtown Strategic Plan, the University Hill Business Plan and others. ?We just realized we have been working together so much. It?s not redundancy, it?s collaboration,? he said.

Stumpf?s annual salary was $88,000; Maher would not disclose his salary, saying only it was in the ballpark of Stumpf?s, and he expected the additional duties to result in a ?small raise.?
The BEC is a division of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce that is funded through $5,000 memberships and some county money, Maher said. Its mission is promoting the economy in Boulder. The BEC?s employees are Maher and part-time Programs Director Kara Williams. The BEC has offices at the chamber, for which it pays rent, Maher said.

Prior to his appointment as BEC director, Maher was director of the chamber?s Small Business Development Center and owned the Ben & Jerry?s Scoop Shop on the Pearl Street Mall.
Making the relationship between the city of Boulder and the BEC a permanent one is ?a real possibility,? Maher said. ?During the nine months of Michael we learned a lot about what worked and didn?t work. Hopefully we can apply it to this arrangement. We?ll still be learning. I think it might turn out to be a long-term solution.?

Contact Caron Schwartz Ellis at (303) 440-4950 or csellis@bcbr.com.

on Facebook on LinkedIn