Declaration of purpose; applicability

A. The legislature hereby finds and declares that the health, safety, and welfare of the people of this state are dependent upon the continued encouragement, development, growth, and expansion of private sector economic development within the state. The legislature further finds and declares that there are certain depressed areas in the state that need the particular attention of government. These depressed areas often have declining or minimal tax revenues creating a widening gap in funding between the costs of public project needs and available resources at the local level to address them. Finally, investment in public infrastructure could dramatically improve the quality of life of residents and make the areas more attractive to private sector economic development. Therefore, it is declared to be the purpose of this Chapter to stimulate a partnership between government and the private sector for business growth in these depressed areas through local incentives for private sector donations for local public infrastructure projects. B. This Chapter shall apply only to cooperative endeavor agreements which expressly cite this Chapter as authority for the agreement, and shall not be construed as being applicable or otherwise limit a local government entity to enter into cooperative endeavor agreements generally.