Highlights:

- Allows a governing body of a city, township, county, local school district, or intermediate school district to apply for the establishment of a Promise Zone. The Department of Treasury determines if the governing body's entity is eligible [Sec. 5 (1) & (4)]. - Establishes the eligibility requirement as a population in which the percentage of families with children under the age of 18 living at or bellow the federal poverty level is greater than or equal to the state average [Sec. 3 (c)]. - Requires the establishment of a Promise Zone Authority for any governing body whose application to create a Promise Zone has been approved. The authority consists of 11 members appointed by the chief executive officer of the eligible entity whose job it is to prepare a Promise Zone Development Plan that describes how financial assistance will be funded and disbursed (Secs. 7 & 9). - Requires each Promise Zone Authority to have a director who is responsible for implementing the promise zone development plan and submitting a budget for the operation of the authority to the governing body for each fiscal year [Secs. 13 & 17]. - Allows a Promise Zone to appropriate half of an increase in revenue brought in by the state education tax for that entity, if the authority is making annual payments in accordance with the Promise Zone Development Plan [Sec. 19 (2)]. - Substitute (H-3) offered by Rep. Melton on 12/13/2007.

Full Bill Text