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NEWS |
From the Office of Speaker Pro Tem Denny Hoskins
54th District |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 29, 2014
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CONTACT: Rachel Bauer (573) 751-4302
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Speaker Pro Tem Hoskins Files Legislation to Encourage Missouri
Businesses to Hire and Retain Missouri Innovation Campus Graduates
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Building on Missouri’s efforts to prepare students for employment in high-demand tech fields, Speaker Pro Tem Denny Hoskins filed legislation to encourage Missouri businesses to hire graduates with a STEM degree from a Missouri Innovation Campus. Hoskins said the legislation, HB 298, is the next step in the state’s efforts to attract and retain businesses, and keep the state’s highly trained workforce in Missouri.
“Our innovation campuses have been hailed as an educational model the rest of the nation should follow as they have provided a streamlined process for Missouri’s youth to obtain the skills they need to work in the high demand science and technology fields,” said Speaker Pro Tem Hoskins, R-Warrensburg. “HB 298 will create new incentives for employers to hire these highly-trained graduates so that we can keep them here in Missouri, and so that businesses will have another reason to invest and grow here within our borders.”
HB 298 would authorize an employer to retain an employee’s withholding tax for five years if the employee has graduated with a STEM degree from a Missouri Innovation Campus. Hoskins noted that Missouri now has innovation campuses around the state, including in his district at the University of Central Missouri. The innovation campuses were started in 2012 and put into statute in 2013 by SB 381. Innovation Campuses offer students accelerated degree programs specifically designed to prepare them for careers in science, technology and other high demand fields, and to reduce the time and cost needed to earn their degrees.
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