A way to encourage development of innovative, but underfunded, businesses has worked so well the legislature is considering expanding it. Capital Investment Companies, or CAPCOs, combine private money with state tax credits to invest in start-up companies that have trouble getting financing from conventional sources. The Senate had advanced a plan to allow another ten-million dollars worth of tax credits for the program. Sponsor Joe Maxwell of Mexico says the state has invested 40 million dollars in the last four years, an investment that has brought 540-million dollars worth of investments. At least one-fourth of the new state funding in the program has to be spent on agricultural ventures.
