Kings County officials are up in arms this week as Sacramento threatens to remove its designation as a state enterprise zone. Considering that we’re in the one of the worst recessions in recent history, cutting incentives to hire new employees does not seem to be the best strategy for decreasing the job crisis.

Eiji Yamashita, from the Hanford Sentinel, reports, “The county leadership is expected to send a letter to Assemblyman Manual Perez, chairman on Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy urging him to advocate for economically depressed areas like Kings County and help them retain their enterprise zone status.”

Without this enterprise zone designation, Kings County would not have the same appeal to new businesses and may even have issues with retaining current companies, since it would be in their best interest to move to a more corporate friendly city.

Local businesses in San Francisco may soon find themselves being able to take advantage of new state tax credits. Many people don’t realize that the San Francisco region is already an Enterprise Zone, however the city is considering applying for an expansion for 2010. One of the main areas that would benefit the most from an Enterprise Zone designation is the old Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, which has re-development plans for new stores, restaurants, etc. to bring life back into the area.

These plans are following up on the 2007 EZ expansion that increased the size of the zone to nearly 6,000 acres throughout the city.