A long time supporter of the EZ program, Assemblyman Perez, head of the JEDE committee had this to say at a press conference Friday:

“California has to get serious about making this state a more business friendly place,” said Pérez. “Eliminating the Enterprise Zone program is not going to help the California economy or California communities. Let’s seize this opportunity to improve the program so that it is more transparent and accountable to the public, and more closely linked to our community and workforce development objectives.”

Read the entire piece here.

At the press conference, Ernie Ball, owner of Ernie Ball, Inc. had some harsh words for the governor’s proposal to eliminate the EZ:

The CEO of Ernie Ball Inc., an internationally-known guitar string making plant that’s been in California 49 years, on Friday likened the governor’s threat to abolish Enterprise Zones to a call to Dr. Kevorkian.

“This is the last straw in California” that will break a businesses’ back, Sterling Ball said, as he threw his support to reform legislation that’s been introduced by state Assemblyman V. Manuel Pérez to keep the California Enterprise Zone Program in place.

“California has to get serious about making this state a more business-friendly place,” Pérez said during a rally at Ernie Ball Inc., which settled into the Coachella Valley Enterprise Zone in 2004.

Pérez said 2,000 jobs were created and retained in this enterprise zone, alone.

“The governor’s proposal is a step backward,” he said, before calling attention to reform legislation he’s introduced to improve the state economic development tool.

“Government does not create jobs,” Pérez said. “People like Ernie Ball do.”

Ernie Ball Inc. gives 300 people — 80 percent of whom came in as laborers from the farm fields — a “living wage’,” solid insurance plans and perks, said Ball.

Ball said he spent $8 million of his family’s money to move the company to the Coachella Valley, and has enjoyed 7 percent growth since. “We’ve never had a layoff,” and never taken out a bank loan, he said, of the company that supplies guitar strings to 5,500 music stores in the nation and 100 foreign countries.

“If you pull the Enterprise Zone, there will not be one more job added here,” Ball said.

Read it here.

Tags: california enterprise zone, california tax law, enterprise zone news, Enterprise Zone Program, Enterprise Zone Tax Credits, Enterprise Zones, EZ tax credits, hiring credits, hiring tax credit, Tax News

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