Section 40-18-376.4 Qualifying Projects by Underrepresented Companies.

(a) This section shall be applicable to an underrepresented company, as defined in this section. In making the findings required by Section 40-18-373(1), an underrepresented company that proposes a qualifying project shall be an approved company for purposes of this section only if the Secretary of Commerce makes the additional finding that the qualifying project will increase economic diversity and will benefit the state. (b) If provided for in the project agreement, the following shall be allowed to any company that meets all of the criteria in subsection (a): (1) Absent a finding of extraordinary circumstances by the Secretary of Commerce, a qualifying project shall be deemed to be in existence notwithstanding the requirements of Section 40-18-372 so long as 10 new jobs are created. (2) A jobs credit against utility taxes, in an annual amount up to 4 percent of the wages paid to Alabama resident employees during the prior year. (3) The investment credit provided in Section 40-18-376(a) shall have an incentive period not to exceed 15 years. (c) An “underrepresented company” is any company that meets all the criteria in subdivision (1) or (2): (1) The company is a for-profit business headquartered in a community eligible for investment through the federal New Markets Tax Credit program under 26 U.S.C. § 45D(e) as those communities were identified as of January 1, 2015, or in such a community identified thereafter , has fewer than 10 employees at the time the project agreement is executed, and has average gross revenues of less than five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) in the company’s three years prior to the execution of the project agreement; or (2) The company is a for-profit business that is independently owned and controlled and is at least 51 percent owned and controlled by one or more underrepresented persons or, in the case of a publicly-owned business, the company is a for-profit business of which at least 51 percent of the stock is owned and controlled by one or more underrepresented persons and whose daily management and operations are under the control of one or more underrepresented persons. As used herein, an “underrepresented person” is a United States citizen who is a woman or is African American.