Companies attempting to grow human organs will be exempt from paying two state business taxes for the next 10 years after a measure easily cleared both the New Hampshire House and Senate on Wednesday.
The bill comes in the wake of the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute, a Manchester-based non-profit created by inventor Dean Kamen, receiving an $80 million grant last year from the U.S Department of Defense.
ARMI aims to use a person’s own cells to regenerate human tissues and organs, with the hopes of creating limbs for amputees, or kidneys and livers for those in need of a transplant.
“It’s not going to happen tomorrow or the next day, but as a result of this, a process will take place that will make the lives of a lot of people a lot better,” Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, a Democrat from Manchester, told his colleagues during a debate on Wednesday.
Under the bill, firms that devote at least 75 percent of their business activities to regenerative medicine would be exempt from both the business enterprise tax and the business profits tax. The tax breaks would last through 2027.
“There is zero financial impact on the state because the bill provides tax exemptions for businesses that have yet to form,” said Senate Majority Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro. “This is an innovative approach to creating high tech jobs and attract necessary talent to New Hampshire without any upfront cost.”
Some fiscal conservative groups, including the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, opposed the measure, citing that New Hampshire traditionally doesn’t provide incentives for specific industries.
Still, it easily cleared both chambers.
In a statement, Governor Chris Sununu says he looks forward to signing the bill into law.
"New Hampshire has signaled to the rest of the country that we are at the forefront of innovative, life-saving technological developments,” said Sununu.
