TEDC 4A/4B Sales Tax Training

Corlis Riedesel, Cuero City Manager and Diana Blank, Director of Economic Development, Cuero Development Corporation, attended the 4A/4B Sales Tax Training Seminar mandated by State Law July 7 in Corpus Christi. The training consisted of concentrations on basic understanding of economic development, the history of the economic development sales tax, corporation requirements, Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Public Information Law made easy, legislative updates, Attorney General opinions, the State definition of "project", the Development Corporation Act of 1979, a guide to building effective economic development organizations and best practices and benchmarks.

This educational seminar laid out the basic do's and don'ts for 4A & 4B sales tax corporations. The training hosted by the Texas Economic Development Council was instructed by representatives from the State Attorney General's Office, State Comptroller's Office, and outside legal firms and TEDC. Questions and concerns were welcomed by those parties throughout the day.

Blank attended the TEDC Summer Conference and several quarterly committee meetings following the training in Corpus Christi.

Grant Writing Workshop Attended

Diana Blank, Director of Economic Development, Cuero Development Corporation, attended the 2004 Grant Writing Workshop, Practical Training for Writing Effective Grant Proposals, sponsored by the Texas Historical Commission and Friends of the Texas Historical Commission June 21st and 22nd in Austin.

This workshop was very informative and is a great start for basic training in grant writing. It covered topics such as foundation libraries as a resource for research, existing foundations, IRS reporting and non-profits and step-by-step grant proposal outlines.