The Sequoia Valley Enterprise Zone, designated as such in January 2009, currently consists of 33,902 acres, and includes commercial, industrial, non-commercial and non-industrial areas, according to a Porterville Economic Development Department staff report.

The proposed expansion would increase Porterville’s boundaries by 72 parcels for a total of 143 acres. Tulare County’s enterprise zone, which includes the south county communities of Terra Bella, Tipton and Richgrove among 10 others, would be expanded by approximately 3,310 acres.

Read the full article.

Assemblyman Louis Alejo, who has been a big supporter of the EZ program over the last few years, has introduced a new bill, AB 484, to address the operation of expiring zones.   Assemblyman Alejo’s district includes Watsonville which is set to expire.  HCD has indicated that it will not be renewing expiring zones or designating new ones for now.  Alejo’s bill seeks to extend the expiring zones until new zones are designated.

The California Supreme Court has scheduled oral argument in the Dicon case for Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. in San Francisco.

Brown’s budget released today only hints at future reform measures to the Enterprise Zone program.  Perhaps after getting rid of RDAs, the unions are a bit gunshy about outwardly attempting getting rid of another vehicle that has anything to do with jobs while the economy struggles.  Here is what the budget said about Enterprise Zones:

“The resulting stability from a balanced budget will give businesses the certainty and the reassurance they need to invest in California. In addition, the Administration will propose legislation to reform the enterprise zone program and move to a mandatory single sales factor for apportioning multistate business income. Such changes will allow the state to afford investments in manufacturing, business incentives, and other tax relief.”

Let the games begin.  Speaker Perez spoke out about the redevelopment case and what it means to Enterprise Zones.

“A second look will also no doubt be taken at the issue of local economic development in the wake of the California Supreme Court ruling that abolishes more than 400 local redevelopment agencies next month. Speaker Perez dismissed any notion that actual RDAs will be recreated by the Legislature; instead, he emphasized the need for ways to promote job creation and economic stimulus that doesn’t favor one region over another. And he suggested that the scrapping of RDAs could reignite his the effort of many Democrats to revise the state’s enterprise zone program.”

Read the full article.

Tala Enterprise, a clothing maker that idled its denim line in China to bring its production back to the United States, officially opened a new knitwear manufacturing plant in the Coachella Valley Enterprise Zone.

“Assemblyman V. Manuel Pérez noted that the plant’s opening in the Coachella Valley Enterprise Zone comes at a critical time when California has frequently been labeled as unfriendly to business.

The very existence of this new business illustrates the importance of the state’s enterprise zones, which provide companies extra benefits to open, the Coachella Democrat said.”

Read the full article.

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

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.

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.