FERRIDAY, La. – Buddy Spillers is drawing maps in his sleep – but he is hoping the results will turn out to be a sweet reality for businesses in Concordia, Catahoula, Tensas and Franklin parishes.

&uot;I’ve been drawing these maps so long that I drew them all night in my sleep,&uot;&160;Spillers said Friday.

Spillers, president of the Ferriday-based Macon Ridge Economic Development Region, was referring to maps he must draw as part of an application to make parts of four parishes a Renewal Community.

As it now stands, the area included in the application will roughly include Concordia and Catahoula Parishes north of U.S. 84, Tensas Parish west of U.S. 65 and the southern part of Franklin Parish.

Businesses in areas the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development designates as RCs will qualify for several different tax credits that could save them thousands of dollars a year. Such incentives will help recruit new businesses and revitalize existing ones, Spillers said.

Applications for RC designations – which based largely on poverty and unemployment rates -must be submitted to HUD no later than Oct. 12, and HUD will make the designations in December, according to information from HUD. Forty areas will be chosen as RCs, including at least 12 rural areas.

Tax credits could be quite substantial for businesses in the RC, Spillers said.

For example, if at least 35 percent of a business’ employees lived in the RC, the business owner would be entitled to a tax credit of up to 15 percent of the first $10,000 he paid those employees from now through the year 2010.

If that business owner makes a capital investment, such as a new building or a truck, he could take accelerated depreciation on that investment. &uot;That first year, he could (claim) up to $30,000,&uot;&160;Spillers said.

And for each RC designated in a state, the state would get an additional $12 million in federal tax incentives, which could then be used as the Governor’s Office saw fit – for example, as incentives to recruit new industries.

To apply for RC status, an area must be contiguous, although census tracts can be cut out of the middle of the designated area -which is why Spillers is drawing and redrawing maps.

The community can include up to 200,000 people, 20 percent of whom must have incomes below the federal poverty level.

In 1999, 11.8 percent of people nationwide were considered to be below the poverty level. Currently, the federal government considers a family of four that makes less than $17,650 a year as being in poverty.

Current poverty statistics for Louisiana parishes for the year 2000 are not yet available from the Census Bureau. But in 1989, the latest year that statistics were available, 30.6 percent of Concordia Parish residents, 36.8 percent of Catahoula residents and 46.3 percent of Tensas residents lived below the poverty level.

The area must also have at least one-and-a-half times the national unemployment rate. For May, Concordia Parish had 10.8 percent unemployment, Catahoula Parish had 9.2 percent and Tensas Parish had 6.5 percent, compared to the nationwide rate of 4.5 percent.

&uot;Our shot at this, I’d say, is extremely good,&uot; Spillers said.