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.

From the Sacramento Bee:

IOUs take last ride
The state controller’s office announced this afternoon it sent out its last IOU — at least for now.

Hallye Jordan, spokeswoman for Controller John Chiang, said the lucky (?) recipient of the formally titled “registered warrant” was Yellow Cab of Sacramento. Jordan said the warrant was issued for an account with the cab company by an unidentified state agency.

The good news is that the IOU can be redeemed starting Friday.

California was forced to start paying vendors, counties and others with rubber checks in July, because of a severe cash flow shortage. The issuance marked only the second time since the Great Depression that warrants were used. (The other time was 1991.)

The IOUs totaled 449,241, worth $2,601,894,756.26.

Not including tip.

In good news for local businesses working for the California state government, State Controller John Chiang publicly announced that the IOU program will end on September 4th.  This is approximately one month prior to earlier estimations.  Chiang has received a wave of public support for this decision and credits the action to a slew of stress tests performed on the new State budget and cash flow analysis.

“The State of California owes a debt of gratitude to the thousands of individuals and businesses that were forced to bear the brunt of the State’s chronic fiscal mismanagement,” Chiang said. “Along with short-term loans that are routinely obtained in the fall, this spending plan should provide sufficient cash to meet all of California’s payment obligations through the fiscal year.”

For anyone not familiar with the situation, Chiang started the state IOU program last month during the budget shortfall.  The companies sent these IOUs (also known as registered warrants) have been vigorously fighting for the program to be brought to a conclusion due to the cash flow issues the IOU program was causing their own businesses.