(June 15, 2006) A recent study of California’s Enterprise Zone (EZ) program has shown they are a key factor in saving the state from economic decline.

The California Chamber of Commerce has joined the Coalition to Save Enterprise Zones to bring awareness to the vital role EZs play in California’s economy, an effort that is especially timely because 18 of the state’s 42 EZs are set to expire at the end of 2006.

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Key Competitiveness Tool

“The Enterprise Zone program is one of the few remaining ways California can compete with other states that offer generous financial incentives to steal our jobs,” said Allan Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce. “California cannot afford to diminish its ability to attract jobs and investment.”

‘Hitting the Mark’

A study compiled by Professor Ted K. Bradshaw, Ph.D., from the University of California, Davis, challenges a recent report by the California Budget Project (CBP) that failed to analyze EZ program benefits even as it charged that EZs “miss the mark” in economic development.

Bradshaw has found that California’s EZs, in fact, “hit the mark,” creating much-needed jobs and economic stimulus in the depressed parts of the state. Professor Bradshaw warns that CBP report entirely misses the point of why California’s EZ program works.

In his report, “How California’s Enterprise Zones Have Saved the State from Decline,” Professor Bradshaw claims that the CBP report released in April 2006 is seriously biased. He also concludes that massive downsizing of the program or draconian new restrictions on its operations are misguided and premature before the Department of Housing and Community Development completes its current updating of the regulations.

Huge Job Generators

In an earlier examination of the cost benefits of the EZ program, Bradshaw estimated that California’s EZs conservatively could take credit for generating nearly 300,000 jobs over a 10-year period, and that these jobs returned to the state treasury enough new tax revenues to compensate for the program costs.

The California EZ program stands out as an example nationwide because it targets disadvantaged areas and promotes the hiring of disadvantaged workers. This is the right way to run Enterprise Zones, and overall the California program has been successful in transforming many distressed areas that otherwise would remain in the spiral of decline.

Read the full report.

For more information please visit: www.saveezones.com

Staff Contact: Vince Sollitto