When Jerry Brown was Mayor of Oakland, he proudly welcomed Cybergold, an internet start-up company that moved to Oakland in large part because of “the tax incentives of the Enterprise Zone.”   It was September 28, 1999.

“Cybergold’s talented workforce adds to the energy and excitement of downtown Oakland,” said Mayor Brown at an event celebrating Cybergold’s recent arrival. “Cybergold’s presence here is an unmistakable signal to other Internet start-ups that Oakland is wired and ready to go.”
Read it here.

I guess that was then and this is now, but Mayor Brown was able to build a thriving downtown Oakland because of the EZ.  Now he claims they are of no benefit to the state and should be summarily cast aside. Hmmm.

Pharmaceutical giant Bayer cut 39 jobs, but is not at risk of leaving the Oakland Enterprise Zone reports the Bay Citizen.  Read the article here.

In exciting news for businesses located in West Berkeley, the Oakland City Council has announced that they have approved the expansion of the region’s enterprise zone to cover West Berkely, and the over 1,000 businesses that operate out of the city.

The Berkeley Daily Planet reports, “Berkeley’s primary motivation to pass the proposal was to keep Bayer Healthcare, the city’s largest private-sector employer, from leaving town. The company had threatened to outsource some of its manufacturing, a move city officials feared would lead to the pharmaceutical giant eventually shutting down its Aquatic Park campus entirely. As a result, Berkeley agreed to give Bayer $10 million in tax breaks for over two years, including a reduction in PG&E bills, as part of the enterprise zone, in return for which the company will remain in Berkeley and invest $100 million in the facility.”

This is exciting since it could help to bring new businesses into the area, and will help to offset the high cost of living in the area.

The practice of hiring individuals with a criminal record is always controversial, however with the current state of the market, the state of California offers local businesses tremendous tax benefits for these employees.  A good example of a city taking advantage of this principle is Oakland.  Because much of Oakland is designated as an “Enterprise Zone” by the state, employers can save tens of thousands of dollars in state taxes, according to Susana Villarreal, the city’s enterprise zone coordinator.  Employers can deduct up to 50% of the employee’s wages from state taxes by hiring people who fit certain criteria, Villarreal said. Those qualified employees include ex-offenders but also veterans and those on certain federal programs.