It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

SECTION 1. Section 42-64.3-3 of the General Laws in Chapter 42-64.3 entitled "Distressed Areas Economic Revitalization Act" is hereby amended to read as follows:

42-64.3-3. Definitions -- As used in this chapter, the following words and terms shall have the following meanings unless the context shall indicate another or different meaning or intent:

(1) "Council or "enterprise zone council" means the governmental agency created pursuant to section 42-64.3-3.1.

(2) "Enterprise zone," "economic revitalization zone," or "zone" means an economically distressed United States bureau of the census division or delineation in need of expansion of business and industry, and the creation of jobs, which is designated to be eligible for the benefits of this chapter.

(3) "Governing authority" means the governing body of a state, city or town within which a qualified United States bureau of the census division or delineation lies.

(4) (i) "Qualified business" or "business facility" means any business corporation, sole proprietorship, partnership, or limited partnership or limited liability company which:

(A) After the date of its original application for membership in the enterprise zone program or the date annual membership is renewed creates and hires a minimum of five percent (5%) new or additional enterprise jobs or in the case of a company having twenty (20) employees or less, this requirement shall be that the company create and hire one new or additional enterprise job, in the respective zone during the same certification year; and

(B) Whose total Rhode Island wages including those Rhode Island wages for additional enterprise jobs, exceeds the total Rhode Island wages paid to its employees in the prior calendar year; and

(C) Obtains certificates of good standing from the Rhode Island division of taxation, the corporations division of the Rhode Island secretary of state and the appropriate municipal authority at the time of certification; and

(D) Provides the council with an affidavit stating under oath that the entity seeking certification as a qualified business has not within the preceding twelve (12) months from the date of application for certification changed its legal status for the purpose of gaining favorable treatment under the provisions of chapter 64.3 of this title; and

(E) Meets certain other requirements as set forth by the council; and

(F) Has received certification from the council pursuant to the rules and regulations promulgated by the council.

(ii) In the event that an applicant for certification meets the criteria of subdivisions (4)(i)(A) and (4)(i)(C) to (F), but fails to meet the requirements of subdivision (4)(i)(B) solely because the amount of wages paid to the owner or owners of the business has decreased from the prior calendar year, the Council may, for good cause shown, certify the applicant as a qualified business. The applicant shall have the burden to show, notwithstanding its failure to meet the requirements of subdivision (4)(i)(B) above, that the applicant has met the intent of this chapter. For the purposes of this provision, owner shall mean a person who has at least twenty percent (20%) of the indicia of ownership of the applicant.

(5) "Effective date of certification" means the date upon which the qualified business meets the tests imposed in subdivisions (4)(i)(A) through (F) above and applies to the calendar year for which these tests were performed.

(6) "Enterprise job employees" means those full-time employees whose business activity originates and terminates from within the enterprise zone business and facility on a daily basis, and who are domiciled residents of the state (or who, in the case of employees of a high performance manufacturer as that term is defined in section 44-31-1(b)(3)(i) of chapter 44-31, pay personal income taxes to the state) and hired (or transferred, in the case of existing out-of-state employees) and employed by the qualified business in the enterprise zone after the effective date of certification or annual recertification in excess of those full-time employees employed by the qualified business in any Rhode Island enterprise zone in the prior calendar year. An employee who is hired and terminated in the same certification period does not constitute an enterprise job employee.

(7) "Wages" means wages, tips and other compensation as defined in the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, 26 U.S.C. section 1 et seq.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.