Incentive Programs Provide Targeted Assistance
Published Jul 08, 2008
The famed intersection of Hollywood and Vine is in the new Hollywood Enterprise Zone, which offers incentives to businesses.
Most communities have one or two incentive packages to help retain and expand their economic base. Companies doing business in California can expect a lot more choice.
From the state level on down, assorted incentive programs enhance the business environment. Some of the offerings are fairly standard; others are quite innovative.
The state provides three types of targeted tax credits through economic development areas: enterprise zones, Local Agency Base Military Recovery Areas and manufacturing enhancement areas. Companies within enterprise zones qualify for tax credits based on their equipment purchases and hiring numbers, while LAMBRAs offer a similar tax-abatement structure for the rehiring of displaced military employees. The state’s two manufacturing enhancement areas, in Brawley and Calexico, offer a range of incentives – from streamlined payment of local permitting fees to tax credits for each qualified employee hired.
Also in the mix are the research and development tax credit, a net operating loss carryover program, the California Employment Training Panel’s complement of programs, and multiple workforce services through agencies including the Employment Development Department and California WorkNet.
Putting together these and other incentive programs at the local level can be complex, and California Business Investment Services, known as CalBIS, spends a lot of time helping localities and industries get what they need.
An arm of the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency, CalBIS “works with the client and local economic development specialists to offer as many options as possible for locating an ideal site for the company,” says Tom Lease, project manager.
Successful communities are able to cobble together several incentives for specific projects. In Bakersfield, for example, the city is encouraging urban infill and has three active redevelopment areas.
One project, Mill Creek, involves rehabbing an old irrigation ditch and turning it into green space that runs through part of downtown, connects residential areas to businesses and terminates in a park. The park anchors a new multiuse development that includes townhouses and retail stores. State redevelopment funds, federal dollars and tax-increment financing are a few of the tools in play on such projects, says Donna Kunz, economic development director.
“We always look to see how we can leverage a variety of different sources,” Kunz says. “We’re dealing with projects now that don’t fit into one little box, because they’re not just commercial, just housing or just retail [but] multiuse.”
Story by Joe Morris
Photo by Jeff Adkins
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