Jeff Craft and Chase Sheehan of the Office of Economic Development and International Trade presented the fiscal year 2024 Enterprise Zone annual report and explained program mechanics, usage and recent highlights.

Chase Sheehan, the statewide enterprise zone program manager, told the committee that businesses certified nearly $68 million in enterprise zone business tax credits in fiscal year 2024. Sheehan said firms reported $1.52 billion invested in qualified business personal property eligible for a 3% investment tax credit and detailed other program activity, including job‑training credits, research and development credits and contribution projects for public‑private capital campaigns.

Officials told the committee that the program remains heavily administrator‑driven at the local level: 19 local or regional zone administrators propose zone boundaries, market the program and support implementation. Craft and Sheehan said enterprise zone tax credits are performance‑based and require pre‑certification to show the credits factored into a business’s decision to expand or locate in a zone.

Examples highlighted to the committee included contributions to a Children’s Hospital capital campaign in Adams County that drew multiple donors and earned state credits, and Mesa County Habitat for Humanity’s planned use of credits to help construct homes. Sheehan said businesses certified 6,659 net new jobs in fiscal year 2024 and that the program documents an ongoing “breakage” — a difference between certified credits and those actually claimed on tax returns — that tends to reduce final fiscal cost to the general fund.

Committee members had no substantive objections; the presenters continued with a summary of zone administrator annual reports, including activity in Adams County and Weld County. Sheehan closed by saying the office is in the second year of a decennial enterprise‑zone redesignation process required by statute and highlighted an online mapping tool to support local stakeholders.