Tucson, Arizona

making strides there. The Arizona Technology Council is another great organization that represents hundreds of businesses throughout the state, but has a strong presence in Tucson. It convenes these tech companies so that they are able to network, and collaborate, and grow stronger.” “Also, our city and our county work very well together,” Coffee continues. “Pima County and the City of Tucson have teamed up on many occasions to help retain and recruit business. Last year, Raytheon expanded and added 1,900 new jobs; the city and the county worked together to acquire land to provide a buffer for their expansion and allow them to do what was needed. We want to do everything we can to keep companies here and help them grow so jobs are not lost. We have created ways to incentivize the growth of local industry so we can retain jobs and compete with other locations for expansion and relocation projects. We have a robust toolbox for attracting industry and part of that is having a mayor and council that understands the importance of job creation.” One of the city’s tools is called the Primary Jobs Incentive Program; it provides up to a 100 percent reimbursement of construction sales tax to qualifying expenses, such as a project’s public infrastructure improvements, offsets to impact fees, and/or job-training. The City may also reimburse eligible building permit fees. Qualifying projects must: a) invest a minimum of $5 million in facilities or equipment; b) create 25 jobs that pay wages of at least $54,000; and c) cover at least 75 percent of employee health insurance premiums. “The Primary Jobs Incentive has been important,” Courtesy of Visit Tucson Courtesy of Visit Tucson