15-4-3003. Definitions.

15-4-3003. Definitions. As used in this subchapter: (1) “Authority” means the Arkansas Development Finance Authority and any successor agency or department; (2) “Bonds” means bonds issued under this subchapter; (3) “Commission” means the Arkansas Economic Development Commission; (4) “Debt service” means principal, interest, redemption premiums, if any, and trustees', paying agents', dissemination agents', and like servicing fees relative to the bonds; (5) “Develop” means to plan, design, construct, acquire by purchase or by eminent domain, own, operate, rehabilitate, lease as lessor or lessee, enter into lease-purchase agreements with respect to, lend, make grants in respect of, or install or equip any lands, buildings, improvements, machinery, equipment, or other properties of whatever nature, real, personal, or mixed; (6) “Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation” means the federal agency by that name or any successor agency that insures deposits of commercial banks; (7) “General revenues” means the revenues described and enumerated in § 19-6-201 et seq., or in any successor law; (8) “Infrastructure of a superproject” means: (A) Land acquisition; (B) Site preparation; (C) Road and highway improvements; (D) Rail spur construction; (E) Water service; (F) Wastewater treatment; (G) Employee training, which may include equipment used for the training; (H) Environmental mitigation; and (I) Training and research facilities and the necessary equipment for the facilities; (9) “Investment” means money expended by the sponsor on capital assets directly related to the superproject and does not include amounts expended in aid of the superproject by the state pursuant to this subchapter, or otherwise, or amounts expended in aid of the superproject by a local entity, however financed; (10) “Local entity” means any nonprofit corporation, county, city of the first class, city of the second class, incorporated town, improvement district, or school district in the state or any agency or instrumentality thereof, including the authority and the commission; (11) “Nationally recognized rating agency” means Moody's Investors Service, Inc., Standard & Poor's Ratings Group, or any other nationally recognized rating agency approved by the Treasurer of State; (12)(A) “New full-time permanent employee” means a position or job that was created pursuant to a signed incentive plan between the sponsor and the commission and that is filled by one (1) or more employees or contractual employees who are Arkansas taxpayers. The position or job held by the employee or employees must have been filled for at least twenty-six (26) consecutive weeks with an average of at least thirty (30) hours' work per week. (B) A contractual employee must be offered a benefits package comparable to a direct employee of the sponsor; (13) “New job” means a position for a new full-time permanent employee created at a superproject in this state but does not include a job created when an employee is shifted from an existing location in this state to a new or expanded facility if the transferred job is from or to a superproject of the sponsor or a related person; (14) “Person” means any local entity or any individual, corporation, trust, limited liability company, or partnership; (15) “Project costs” means: (A) All or any part of the costs of developing a superproject and costs incidental or appropriate to the superproject, including without limitation, all costs to the commission associated with the development or operation of a superproject in a supervisory capacity; and (B) Costs incidental or appropriate to the financing of the superproject, including without limitation, capitalized interest, costs of issuance of and appropriate reserves for the bonds, loan or commitment fees, loan or grant administration fees, and costs for engineering, legal, and other administrative and consultant services; (16) “Project fund” means the Economic Development Superprojects Project Fund created by this subchapter; (17) “Related person” means any entity or person that bears a relationship to the sponsor as described in 26 U.S.C. § 267, as it existed on February 1, 2003; (18) “Sponsor” means a sole proprietor, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, or association taxable as a business entity or any combination of these entities; (19) “State” means the State of Arkansas; (20) “State Apportionment Fund” means the fund by that name created by § 19-5-201 or any successor law; and (21) “Superproject” means infrastructure, land, buildings, and other improvements on the land and all other machinery, apparatus, equipment, office facilities, and furnishings that are necessary, suitable, or useful by a sponsor and in which a total of at least four hundred million dollars ($400,000,000) is invested by the sponsor and at least four hundred (400) new jobs are created at the project by the sponsor.