Business View Magazine
3
“I believe that we are on the move and we’re doing
some things that are going to be putting us on the
map, not only in Colorado, but nationally,” she de-
clares. “One of the first things that our community has
instituted in an effort to recruit new businesses into
the area is called ‘Rural Jumpstart.’ It’s a program that
was implemented in January of this year by the State
of Colorado and Mesa County. We were the first county
to enroll in the program and we are, currently, the only
county that is qualifying businesses for this program.”
Essentially, Rural Jumpstart is a tax holiday initiative.
“It allows companies to be eligible to operate free of
both state and local taxes for up to eight years,” Pol-
lard explains. “The taxes that they will waive are corpo-
rate income tax, income tax for the employees, state
and local sales and use tax, state and local business
personal property tax, and real property tax at the lo-
cal level. So, it’s a significant savings for companies
that locate here.”
In order to qualify for the program, a company must
be new and innovative with a product or service that’s
unique to Colorado and not in competition with a busi-
ness that already exists in the state. So far, Pollard
says that seven businesses have qualified since Janu-
ary. She talks about a few of them: “ProStar Geocorp
is a software company that has developed a platform
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
The Grand Junction Economic Partnership
WHAT:
A private, non-profit economic develop-
ment agency
WHERE:
Grand Junction, Colorado
WEBSITE
:
