The Board came out in favor of the Governor’s budget on many fronts, including its stark honesty.  However, the Board is against driving businesses out of California by eliminating the Enterprise Zones.

Another area in which Brown’s spending plan shows ignorance of beneficial municipal-business partnerships is that of enterprise zones.
“Because the primary benefit of these zones is to shift economic activity from one geographic region within California to another geographic region within California, they are not of statewide interest,” Brown states in his budget proposal.
For many companies, the incentives offered through enterprise zones such as Santa Clarita’s are the only thing keeping them in California, and thus generating jobs.
As state Senate candidate Sharon Runner noted in a recent Signal Editorial Board meeting, what California really needs to get out of its fiscal hole is more jobs — jobs to generate tax revenue to keep state and local governments running.
But for the sake of argument, let’s pretend for a moment that Brown’s claim is true, and the “primary” benefits of enterprise zones is to shift jobs from one area to another. What’s the alternative?
In Santa Clarita, 50 percent of our work force travels out of town to jobs in L.A. What are the impacts of this daily migration on the state, and on the work force? Clogged freeways, long commute times, more and more resulting air pollution, frustrated workers.
These problems will only get worse unless we in the Santa Clarita Valley solve our jobs deficit. We simply are not adding enough jobs fast enough to close the gap.
The Enterprise Zone program can help us do that.

Read the full article here.

Anaheim, Harbor Gateway and Santa Clarita Valley, according to California Newswire.  Nothing posted on the HCD site yet.  Here is the link to the California Newswire story.

Natalie Everett, from the Signal, reports the following regarding the hire, “Damian Jones has 15 years of experience in the field, including a stint as The Home Depot’s government relations senior manager. His firm, Pacific Strategy Group, represents about 350 clients in 17 offices across the nation. One of the first issues Jones will tackle is securing Santa Clarita’s enterprise zone. A bill is making its way through the state Legislature that would make eligibility for the lucrative tax breaks – up to $37,000 for one employee over five years – harder to get.”

“(We recently) held a forum for existing business owners asking them what were the benefits of doing business in the Santa Clarita Valley, and the No. 1 answer was availability of the enterprise zone,” Jones said. “Real dollars are being saved, it’s improving our economy, and people are trying to … minimize their impact.”

It’s great to see cities from around the state are realizing the importance of the Enterprise Zones and are putting the resources needed behind their plans.