“This morning, AB 1139 was heard but no vote was taken, and the author Assembly Member John Pérez indicated that it was a “work in progress” and would be a two-year bill, meaning that it remains alive but is on hold legislative-process-wise until next January, the second year of the two-year legislative session.

For our opposition coalition, this is a positive development because that means it is no longer advancing towards passage at least for this legislative year. However, we must remain vigilant, as threats have in the past and can in the future resurface in other vehicles and forms and any time.
There was a strong showing at this morning’s hearing by the labor unions who testified in support of the bill. The bill presentation and support testimony was unfortunately filled with numerous, significant inaccuracies and outdated information about the EZ program. The information was extremely negative, portraying the program as one filled with problems, ineffectiveness, and abuse and only helping wealthy areas.

On behalf of the opposition coalition, CAEZ, City of San Diego, and a small business from Lodi testified and provided compelling success stories about the EZ program. We also had a very strong showing of opposition – numerous individuals lined up to express opposition. If you have not already done so, you should see the impressive list of opponents listed on pages 12 & 13 of the analysis!  Assembly Members Salas, Beall and Block spoke up and said positive and helpful things about the EZ programs within their districts.

The chair of Jobs Committee, Manuel Pérez said at the end of the hearing that he wants to address problems with the EZ program and asked the opposition to work with the author on AB 1139.”

Tags: bay area, blog, C & I Tax, california tax law, california tax news, canditax, CCC, central valley, certified public accountants, city of compton, compton, corporate savings, CPA, CPA firms, Enterprise Zone Tax Credits, Enterprise Zones, EZ, EZ tax credits, governor, imperial valley, incentives, inland empire, inner-city, los angeles region, northern California, orange county area, policy, qualify, sacramento area, san diego area, santa clarita, steve dotan, tax credits, tax professionals

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 4:27 am and is filed under Tax News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.