CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - A carefully tailored bill aimed at enticing a pharmaceutical company to expand its operations in Cody cleared a Wyoming legislative committee Thursday even as some questioned whether it was special legislation designed to benefit a single entity.
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday sent the bill to the full Senate after removing language that would approve a loan of nearly $25 million from the state general fund. The full Senate may consider whether to restore the funding if it considers the bill before a Friday action deadline.
Bill sponsor Sen. Hank Coe, R-Cody, told the committee it’s aimed at persuading Philadelphia-based Lannett Company to expand its drug-manufacturing lab in Cody. Coe said expanding the plant promises hundreds of jobs.
As introduced, the bill specified that the funding would be open to first qualified Wyoming local government entity to apply for the money. However, its specified fund requirements were tailored to the Cody project.
“We are ready to jump,” Coe said of the Cody project after Thursday’s committee hearing. While he said others could apply for the funding, he said, “we’ll be in there applying for it immediately for it because we have it all put in place.”
A day earlier, the Senate Revenue Committee on Wednesday amended the bill to make it less specific to the Cody project. In an interview Thursday, Coe said he expects the amendments would serve to create a procedure for the Wyoming Business Council to deal with other large projects in the future.
“They’ve never had this before, and this is a large project for them to fund, so it pretty much turns it into a generic situation, where it says any, city, town, county, joint powers board can apply,” Coe said.
Wyoming has seen a series of private companies seeking enticements from the state to locate operations there. Early this month, the State Loan and Investment Board approved $13 million in grants Thursday to help a Colorado producer of ammunition magazines for guns move its manufacturing operations to Wyoming.
In 2012, Microsoft has agreed to invest up to $112 million to build a new data center near Cheyenne in a deal that saw the state pledge over $10 million in grants and incentives to land the project.
Gov. Matt Mead said Thursday the discussion about investing in infrastructure associated with large business projects is especially relevant now.
“Wyoming has been successful in its efforts to attract and retain companies and is starting to see even more interest from private businesses looking to expand or relocate,” Mead said. “Many of the projects are large scale. The state must position itself to work at the speed of business.”
Mead said Wyoming must exercise a high level of diligence and ensure that its investments will bring returns and that the process is straightforward. He said he’s interested in seeing the final version of the bill if it passes. “It is worthwhile to try and improve our process for investing in infrastructure associated with large business projects,” he said.
Shawn Reese, policy adviser to Mead, told members of the Appropriations Committee on Thursday that the public would own the infrastructure developed in the Cody project.
Some committee members expressed concern about having a project as large as the Cody lab presented to the legislature as a bill, rather than proceeding through regular channels of seeking funding through the state Business Council.
Sen. Dan Dockstader, R-Afton, said he questioned the concept of having legislators arrive and find a bill ready to go on such a project.
“With this piece of legislation, we’ve kind of changed the way we do business, and how we apply for these loans,” Dockstader said.
Coe responded that it takes many months to issue industrial revenue bonds while Lannett intends to decide in April whether to expand operations in Cody or in its home state Pennsylvania. An attempt to reach a Lannett executive for comment Thursday was not immediately successful.
Coe said the company currently employs about 110 employees in Cody in producing drugs including painkillers. He said that number could grow eventually to 400 employees if the expansion is approved. He said the state already has approved a $9.2-million grant for the company for a warehouse expansion project.
The Wyoming Constitution requires the Legislature to pass general, rather than specific laws. The requirement means that legislation must apply statewide, rather than concern itself solely with local affairs.
Sen. Curt Meier, R-LaGrange, voted against the bill Thursday in committee. “I think we can fix the bill,” he said after the vote. “It’s almost special legislation at this point in time. But I think we can make some amendments to it that will make it an economic development program that could be utilized statewide.”
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