San Joaquin County’s governmental bodies have rallied behind a proposed expansion of the region’s business-friendly Enterprise Zone, but economic development leaders say a fight to keep the program alive is upcoming.

San Joaquin County Economic Development Director Fran Aguilera adamantly supports the EZ.  ”The zone is the biggest tool we have to attract business, and to keep them here.  It’s ludicrous. If you do something that hurts businesses … you’re hurting employment.”

Read the story here.

A plethora of different business group are collaborating together to host a small business tax forum which will include discussions on taking advantage of the Enterprise Zone Program.  The different groups include Oakland’s Mayor, Alameda County Small Business Development Center, Northern California Small Business Financial Development Corporation, Black Economic Council, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, East Bay Economic Development Alliance, The Women’s Chamber of Commerce, Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, African American Chamber of Commerce, Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce and the Alameda County Bar Association.

 Here is the flyer for the event.

In the Tax Foundation’s 2011 State Business Tax Climate Index, California dropped from the 48^th worst state in the nation to do business in to the 49^th worst.  California lags behind only New York (but there’s always next year). 

See the Foundation’s paper here.

Colton Mayor Kelly Chastain boasts about how the San Bernardino Enterprise Zone has helped keep businesses and how she plans to attract more businesses. 

Having served the residents of Colton for 14 years, I have seen firsthand how tax incentives and funding programs support businesses. The city of Colton is among the locations in California to be a part of a designated Enterprise Zone. These zones offer employers a series of business and tax incentives to help them offset the high cost of doing business in the state.

Read the full San Bernardino Sun article here.

This year’s CAEZ conference will feature prominent business consultant Larry Kosmont. 

Kosmont is an industry veteran who specializes in providing economic development, finance, and real estate advisory services to both public agencies and private corporations. As an economic development consultant Kosmont assists companies with finding business-friendly cities.

He established Encino-based Kosmont Companies in 1986 and is well known for founding The Kosmont – Rose Institute Cost of Doing Business Survey™, a national publication that compares taxes and incentives for more than 400 cities and counties nationwide.

Read the Highland News article here.

T3 picks the Modesto EZ for its new facility, creating more jobs.

Partnering with the Stanislaus Alliance Worknet and the California Enterprise Zone Administrator have provided major tax incentives for California job creation. Grand opening and ribbon cutting on October 8th at 1:00 pm.

Due to a 37% growth over the last 3 quarters, T3-Direct Marketing, a full service marketing agency, has opened a new contact center, complete with 96 agent workstations, executive offices, customer service and quality control depts.

T3 is now poised to be a major player in the inbound telemarketing space and expects to create over 60 new jobs in the next three quarters that include quality assurance, customer service, order fulfillment and inside sales.The T3 Direct Marketing Call Center is also located in a California Enterprise Zone, which offers substantial tax benefits to companies who create jobs and purchase new equipment. Please see CAEZ.org for more info on major tax advantages. 

Read the full article.

Here is the link to the July edition of the CAEZ newsletter.

In today’s Daily News, Austin Beutner, LA’s first deputy mayor and CEO of the Office of Economic and Business Policy, issued a strong statement in favor of the expanded LA Enterprise Zone. More importantly, he backed the general tax policy underlying the EZ Program, i.e. tax credits bring in business and thus more than pay for themselves with other tax revenue and job creation. This is directly contrary to the unions and others who currently oppose the EZ Program.  Beutner had this to say:

Indeed, proof of sincerity on the part of City Hall once was a hurdle in bringing Los Angeles’ economy back to life. But no more. Ronald Reagan used to joke that the scariest words in the English language are: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” Well, the lesson of this “L.A. Story” is that the city government can and will continue to help businesses, including those already here, that want to be a part of our comeback.

Click here to view the latest newsletter for the CAEZ.

If you have a business in a California Enterprise Zone, contact us today for a free consultation.

Below is a letter from CAEZ President Craig Johnson regarding Assemblyman Perez and AB1139:

Dear CAEZ Members and Friends of CAEZ,

As you can see from the article below, Assemblyman John Perez, the author of AB 1139, will become the new Speaker of the State Assembly. Assemblyman Perez also recently removed AB 1139 from the January 5th agenda of the Assembly Jobs & Economic Development Committee. Both of these developments should give us pause, as his intentions toward the Enterprise Zone program are at best, unclear at this point.

We will still have a fight on our hands to preserve and advance the Enterprise Zone program in 2010, as the Legislative Analysts Office has once again called for the abolition of the program.

I will keep you apprised as things develop and ask that you continue to provide CAEZ with your success stories. This effort is vital if we are to combat the onslaught of negative press that continues to appear in newspapers and Journals across the state. Legislators read! It is incumbnet upon us to share our successes with our Legislators in every part of the State. If we don’t do it, no one will.

Thank you for your continued support of the Enterprise Zone program.

CRAIG JOHNSON
President
California Association of Enterprise Zones

Perez emerges from speakership battle
jsanders@sacbee.com
Published Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009
Assemblyman John A. Perez’s final opponent has bowed out, setting the stage for the first-term Democrat to be selected Assembly speaker today — the first openly gay man to hold the post.
After behind-closed-door talks this week with Perez and other political leaders, Assemblyman Kevin de Leon agreed to bow out and is expected to nominate Perez in an Assembly Democratic Caucus today, Capitol sources said.
It is not clear when a formal floor vote will be taken, but by uniting behind a candidate, Democrats need not rely on GOP votes.
De Leon’s decision ends one of the nastiest battles over the Assembly’s top job in recent history, with allegations of backstabbing, double crossing and political deceit.
Perez, cousin of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, will replace current Speaker Karen Bass, who will be forced out of the Legislature by term limits next year.
Democratic colleagues praised Perez, who has served this year as caucus chairman, helping steer the 51-member group through often bitter disagreement as California’s reeling economy forced billions in cuts to education and other public services.
“He’s fair, he’s inclusive, he’s articulate, he’s focused, he’s a team player, and he’s friends with everybody,” said Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, D-Los Angeles.
Lowenthal said that Perez’s status as a first-year legislator was an asset because he can serve five years as Assembly leader before being termed out.
“I trust him,” Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, said of Perez. “If he says that he’s going to do something, I believe that he will.”
Republicans said that they differ markedly in political ideology from either Perez or de Leon, both labor-backed Democrats, so the selection of one over the other makes no substantive difference in prospects for GOP legislation.
Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, said Perez has demonstrated a “great deal of integrity and steady handedness” and that Republicans must find a way to work with whomever Democrats choose because they hold 51 of the 80 seats.
“Candidly, what choice do we have?” Adams said.
Perez, who is chairman of the Assembly Democratic Caucus and was regarded much of the year as a potential candidate for speaker, entered the fray as a late-comer after being pushed by colleagues.
The final days marked a political whirlwind that apparently pulled the rug from under de Leon, who was regarded as the clear frontrunner but never won commitments from a majority of the 51-member Democratic Caucus.
Behind the scenes, the race appeared over shortly before Thanksgiving, when Villaraigosa hosted a private meeting of Perez, de Leon and former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, de Leon’s childhood buddy and lifelong friend, Capitol officials said.
The session ended over a bottle of wine, officials said, with de Leon expected to become speaker and Perez targeted to run with no major Democratic opposition for the Senate seat of Cedillo, who has long coveted a move to the Assembly once he is termed out next year.
Despite the apparent understanding, de Leon was not able to quickly muster the caucus majority necessary to secure the post.
Torrico said many Democratic colleagues simply felt that de Leon, chairman of the powerful Assembly Appropriations Committee, had not led committees focused on major policy issues and was not “up to the job” of speaker.
“Too many people believe that he didn’t earn his stripes, that Fabian Nunez did all the heavy lifting for him,” Torrico said.
Days after the late November meeting with Villaraigosa, Perez switched gears and opted to fight de Leon for the speaker’s job after being lobbied heavily to run by Assembly Democrats Jared Huffman and Fiona Ma, among others.
With Bass’ support, commitments quickly began swinging Perez’s way.
Torrico said he felt a turning point came with commitments by Ma and Los Angeles Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes to Perez.
“Once they came on board with Mr. Perez, basically the three most operational people in the Assembly were on the same team,” he said. “That was a force that could overcome a four-year head start that Kevin de Leon had over John Perez.”
Last week, Bass held a press conference to throw her support behind Perez, declare that a majority of the Democratic Caucus supported him, and to announce that she would begin working with Perez to set a timetable for transition.
Neither Perez nor de Leon commented publicly about the turn of events, but privately, de Leon’s camp continued to press the fight.
The same day that Bass told the media that Perez’s victory was imminent, 10 members of the Assembly’s 17-member Latino Caucus met at the Sheraton Hotel, after which seven declared their support for de Leon as speaker.
At the time, Assemblyman Pedro Nava, a Santa Barbara Democrat who supported de Leon, said the contest was far from over.
“I think that we have a large number of very independent-thinking people who are not going to be stampeded into making a decision,” Nava said.
Since then, Perez and de Leon, along with others, have been ironing out differences in private talks, leading to today’s conciliation.
Doug Herman, Perez’s political consultant, said he does not expect tension to linger between the two finalists for the top job.
“John would never double-cross Kevin,” Herman said. “I think they both want to be able to, and will be able to, work together.”