Here is the FTB’s Tax News for January.

The 2011 Heroes Act expands the WOTC to include:

• Employers that hire veterans who have been looking for employment for more than six months may be eligible for a Returning Heroes Tax Credit of up to $5,600 per employee; employers that hire veterans who have been looking for employment for less than six months may be eligible for a credit of up to $2,400 per employee.
• Employers that hire veterans with service-connected disabilities who have been looking for employment for more than six months may be eligible for a Wounded Warriors Tax Credit of up to $9,600 per employee.

 The credits apply to individuals who begin work after November 21, 2011 and on or before December 31, 2012. Keep in mind that the Heroes Act does not extend WOTC’s current December 31, 2011 sunset date for all other potentially elilgible WOTC participaants.

Effective November 8, 2011, the SBVEC has expanded by about 4 square miles.  Read the full story.

Today the HCD issued this press release regarding implementation of new policies, including a moratorium on new zones.  The stated aim of the new policy memorandum is to make the EZ more accountable, efficient and consistent with the Governor’s May budget revise, i.e. a push by the unions to undercut the EZ program from within.  The legal analysis is beginning on the HCD’s claim that the law allows for “up to” 42 zones which if read in the correct light, means phasing out the program.   Read the memo here.

In today’s Daily Journal:

A bill intended to close a loophole in existing law that lets companies relocate to another city within the state to gain lucrative tax credits failed to pass out of a legislative committee yesterday.

Assembly Bill 1278, authored by Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, was inspired by a company, VWR International, that is ditching Brisbane to relocate to an enterprise zone in the city of Visalia.

But Hill failed to get the four votes needed to move the bill past the committee stage.

“The bill was not supported by the chair. I thought I could do it now and was looking for one Republican to support it,” Hill said.

The state Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy is chaired by Manuel Perez, D-Coachella. Perez’s Assembly District includes Imperial County, which officially opposed Hill’s legislation.

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Perez’s 80th Assembly District covers all of Imperial County and parts of Riverside County and the area’s high jobless figures prompted him to vote against Hill’s bill.

“Coming from a community with unemployment over 20 percent and that has historically suffered from a lack of private investment and jobs, I’m always concerned about the impacts of business closures on families and communities. My vote today does not reflect my lack of concern about this issue but rather the importance of pushing for a broader enterprise zone reform agenda,” Perez wrote to the Daily Journal in an email.

AB 1278 represented a piecemeal approach, which Perez believes would undermine efforts to reform the enterprise zone program.

“I initiated the reform conversation more than a year ago and the negotiation includes a number of issues such as business relocation and the tighter targeting of business incentives. Some of the reform proposals are in my bills, AB 231 and AB 1411. I hope my actions today will induce labor and business to come back to the table,” he continued in the email.

From today’s Highland Community News:

The San Bernardino Valley Enterprise Zone (SBVEZ) announced the businesses utilizing the zone have filed more than 2,000 hiring tax credit vouchers since Jan. 2011. The number of vouchers filed this year will soon exceed the total number of vouchers filed in 2010, in just half the time.

The 2,000 vouchers filed so far this year are estimated to produce $75 million in tax savings for these businesses during the five-year period they can claim the credit for a single employee. Reports also show that these cost savings have contributed to the creation of 14 new jobs and the retention of 1,998 existing jobs in the zone.

The California Legislature’s zeal for job creation is, shall we say, less than stellar.  The consequences are obvious.  They are also highlighted in this Sacramento Bee piece from Sunday.

So says Republican Assemblyman Allan Mansoor.  He calls the governor’s proposal to eliminate Enterprise Zones a breach of contract. 

Read his letter.

From the Santa Clarita Signal:

Santa Clarita Valley officials said Wednesday that they’re skeptical of Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest budget proposals that plan to scale back a program that gives tax breaks to local businesses.

“The governor certainly wants to find Republican votes, but he’s going to have to do more than what’s come out of the May revisions,” Smyth said. “Enterprise zones should be left alone.”