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SB 1522 From IL 96th Congress Should Be Passed


SB1522 (http://tinyurl.com/c2b4yx) in Illinois sounds promising for IL based startups. Call your IL state senator-http://tinyurl.com/dgpmzw.

What does the bill do? I’m just going to grab the text from the May Report. I’m skipping adding links because any Illinois resident who reads my blog doesn’t need more links to click on. Not this time!

A capped ($10 million annually) grant-matching program.  So, for example, if a qualified Illinois tech startup obtains a $100,000 federal Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant, the state of Illinois will match that grant. A capped ($15 million annually) investment tax credit for state-registered and qualified early stage investors.  Under appropriate circumstances, such an investor making an early-stage investment in a technology startup would receive a capped credit against his/her Illinois tax bill.

Why we need it:

Illinois’ failure to translate its world class research capabilities into a vibrant startup community has been documented in depressing detail by numerous studies over the last 10 years. Technology firms created here frequently move to other states-including those in the nearby Midwest-recruited away by SB 1522- like programs.  As a result, brains, talent, and Illinois-taxpayer financed technical discoveries leave our state.

What you can do:

  1. Find your state Senator: http://tinyurl.com/dgpmzw.
  2. Call your Senator and ask him/her to support SB 1522. Stress that:
    • Illinois needs the jobs and tax base that tech firms provide.
    • This bill provides much needed stimulus to our economy, because small companies create 60-80% of new jobs and each tech job creates 3-6 jobs indirectly.
    • The funding is so tiny against the total state budget that it will have little if any impact on the deficit/tax picture.

Please act now! State legislators say that if 3-5 people call them on a bill, they really take notice.  You can make sure these much-needed programs are available to our Illinois entrepreneurs.  Thanks for your help! Again, the URL to locate your state senator is http://tinyurl.com/dgpmzw.

This entry was posted on March 31, 2009, 9:10 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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