
1 area in the state for handing out enterprise zone tax credits, with a 37% share in 2010, according to California tax officials. The county also administers the Harbor Gateway Communities Enterprise Zone with the cities of Los Angeles and Huntington Park.Ĭombined, these enterprise zones and others make Los Angeles County the No. The other is shared with the county in an area covering Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Chinatown, Boyle Heights and unincorporated areas of East Los Angeles. One is centered in Hollywood and contained entirely within the city limits.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is a major proponent of the zones. He faces powerful opposition from local governments and business groups that defend enterprise zones, calling them a crucial economic development incentive in a state that has long been considered unfriendly to business. As part of his budget proposal for the year that starts July 1, Brown would redirect existing funds, spending $400 million on a sales tax credit to boost manufacturing and biotech, $200 million on incentives to provide jobs for the poor and unemployed and $100 million to reward businesses that expand in the state. “Not in manufacturing or biotech research and development.”īrown is supporting legislation that would replace the 27-year-old enterprise zone program with broader incentives. “Enterprise zones are not producing the kind of economic growth that we want,” said Kish Rajan, the director of Brown’s business development team. And it has showered benefits on low-wage industries including fast-food restaurants and retailers that do little to build middle-class jobs. His administration contends that the program has rewarded some firms for simply moving jobs from one part of California to another and that it has helped businesses not located in impoverished areas. Jerry Brown is now seeking to eliminate enterprise zones, which he has decried as inefficient, opaque and “loose” in handing out tax breaks. Because of the confidential nature of state tax laws, it’s nearly impossible to find out which companies got credits, how much they were worth and how the companies qualified for them. But the identities of most beneficiaries are a mystery.
