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Tale of Two Cities: Escondido Denied Enterprise Zone Designation

As five new cities rejoice at being designated as Enteprise Zones, some others, including Escondido, are deeply disappointed at having missed the chance to boost their local ecomony.  The San Diego Union Tribune had this to say:

ESCONDIDO — Escondido’s hopes of becoming an enterprise zone to boost its economy have been quashed.

It lost in the latest round of California Enterprise Zone applications to five other cities: Sacramento, Hesperia near Victorville, Pittsburg in the Bay Area, Tulare near Fresno, and Taft, north of Los Angeles.

“What a disappointment,” Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler said. “We were hoping to add it as a tool to help revitalize our underused area (industrial district).”

The city had hoped to use an enterprise-zone designation and the tax credits it gives to businesses to attract high-tech corporations to diversify Escondido’s revenue.

Almost 40 percent of Escondido’s general fund income now comes from sales tax, which is plummeting and resulting in budget deficits.

In March, the city applied to the state Department of Housing and Community Development to become an enterprise zone, proposing an area that covered almost the entire city.

It was roughly bounded by Country Club Drive to the west, state Route 78 and El Norte Parkway to the north and Midway Drive to the east. The southern border jogged along Oak Hill Drive, Juniper Street, Centre City Parkway and Ninth Avenue.

But Escondido soon learned that it faced record competition, and this week, the department announced that the city lost.

John Nunn, the state’s enterprise-zone program manager, declined to explain the reasons, other than the city scored lower.

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