(August 10, 2007) Blake Christian is a long-time champion for a pressing business concern: assuring the continued viability of the Enterprise Zone (EZ) program in California.

Blake Christian

Christian, a winner of the California Chamber of Commerce Small Business Advocate of the Year award, is a partner with the certified public accountancy firm Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt, LLC (HCVT) in Long Beach, which has developed EZ expertise over many years.

Christian is among the firm’s most prolific and tenacious authorities on the subject. His goal: to help as many businesses as possible take advantage of the California EZ program.

Christian has more than 15 years of incentive tax credit experience; during the last few years he has begun to take a leadership role in EZ creation, utilization and continuation.

There from the Start

Although not initially versed in navigating the legislative process, Christian has proven adept at wending through often-contentious waters.

Randy Gordon, president/chief executive officer of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, says Christian “has led the way in getting California’s Enterprise Zones redesignated [and] has contributed to saving California business literally millions of dollars.”

“It’s been a real educational experience, learning about the whole legislative process,” Christian says. “I wasn’t in tune with how complex it could be: crossing party lines, making sure both sides hear your position. You can’t work in a vacuum. In the legislative process, there are a lot more people involved in the decision-making process than in business. It’s challenging but healthy.”

Christian says that although advocacy can be frustrating and time-consuming at times, it also is quite rewarding. “At the end of the day, it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon,” he says. “Advocacy is a long process. You have to be patient. You have to take time to make sure the right people are on board and you’re fighting the right fights. You have to sometimes change course. I would do it all over again. It was a good experience, and the end result is fantastic for businesses in California.”

EZ Challenge

In 2006, after many successful years in operation, most EZs throughout the state were set to expire. A coalition of business interests lobbied the Legislature to extend and preserve the program and redesignate existing EZs.

Christian was a significant force in that effort. He spent a great deal of time re-educating the Legislature and the public on the purpose and mechanics of the program by writing articles and pulling together national studies done by experts on the benefits of enterprise zones.

The most challenging thing about preserving the EZ program, according to Christian, was the need to undo a lot of misinformation circulating about the program.

“There was a perception that it was mismanaged and that only the biggest companies were claiming benefits,” he says. “But those problems were isolated to one city, and at the time of the legislation, all those problems had been fixed by changes in the programs. Because of the mechanics of the program, on a relative percentage basis, enterprise zones help smaller businesses much more than larger businesses.”

Team Effort

Christian is quick to share credit for convincing the right people about the effectiveness of EZs. “Getting support for the legislation was a real team effort,” he says. “Kyla Christoffersen, CalChamber policy advocate, was key within the CalChamber. Lots of people brought skill sets to the table.”

According to Christoffersen, Christian has the ability to understand the nuanced effects the proposed changes could have on the EZ program.

“Blake brought a tremendous amount of expertise to the business community’s advocacy efforts,” she says. “He waded through the proposals and quickly ascertained their practical impact on small businesses and employees.”

Getting the Word Out

From an incentives standpoint, the benefits of EZs are hard to beat. “I am hard-pressed to think of any other program - state or federal - where you can improve the lives of businesspeople, residents and the community at once,” says Christian. “It really does incentivize everyone to do the right thing.”

In EZs, Christian sees a valuable program that needs to be used much more frequently: “The bad news is that the program is not used very often or not as often as it should be,” he says. “Less than 10 percent of businesses that qualify for EZ tax credits and incentives claim them. People often say, ‘This is too good to be true. I don’t want to do it.’ They get suspicious.”

These advantages hold true for international businesses, as well. If a company establishes its operations within an EZ, its California operations often can benefit from a very low effective tax rate once the EZ credits are factored in.

“It’s a huge advantage California has over other states,” Christian asserts.

“Businesses aren’t going to move here because of the beaches. You need to tell them something great, like here are 44 regions to move to in the state that will help with tax minimization.”

Education

Given the general lack of knowledge about the program, educating businesspeople about EZs is the second phase of Christian’s advocacy efforts.

For example, in conjunction with his CPA firm, several university professors, one of his CPA partners and a software company Christian co-founded (NTCG), he worked to develop a software tool that allows companies to enter any address in the country to determine whether it is in a tax incentive zone and to pull forms to claim credits.

Christian also has written a number of articles on the dizzying variety of EZ benefits, but he has discovered over time that face-to-face outreach with city council districts and business owners works best for getting his points across.

“It really requires that live discussion and the back-and-forth Q-and-A that ferrets out what the program’s about,” he says. “Then the light bulbs start going off.”

Word of mouth is another important tool for educating people about EZs. “A business owner will realize they are missing out on the program, and that they can get four years of refunds through it, and then they tell their neighbors,” he says.

Building and Preserving

According to Gordon, “Blake exemplifies the very definition of a small business advocate. “He builds relationships and serves his community as if the issue depended upon him alone.”

Why does Christian focus on advocacy on behalf of small business?

“I have a lot more fun dealing with the business owners directly,” he says.

“They’re the ones who have the passion, the entrepreneur who has built the business from scratch. I get the most pleasure out of helping them build and preserve what they’ve worked hard for. If I can level the playing field with very legitimate strategies that I have available to me, that’s very satisfying.”