Governor Bill Ritter signed a bill yesterday hailed by businesses as a way to create good-paying jobs in tough times. The legislation provides tax credits to companies with new jobs that pay workers above-average wages, writes the Denver Business Journal, which notes that urban companies would have to create at least 20 new jobs to qualify and rural companies would have to establish five new positions.

Another measure signed by Ritter yesterday will create partnerships to train workers for jobs in the budding renewable energy industry at community colleges, reports The Associated Press. Mike Kazmierski, president of the Economic Development Council of Colorado Springs, praised the bills as a “game changer.”

“We can hit the road running today developing more new energy jobs,” said bill sponsor Representative Nancy Todd, an Aurora Democrat (via the Denver Daily News).