Enterprise Zone for McFarland?

This week's issue of the Delano Record reported on an effort by the Delano city council to have their staff file an application to have their city listed as a California Enterprise Zone. A city that falls under an Enterprise Zone status is able to offer businesses a greater incentive to relocate or establish sites within those zones. Shafter and Delano are currently the only two local cities that are designated as enterprise zones. There are currently 42 designated zones within the state with 23 of these zones that are set to expire this year. Several communities are filling out their applications to try to qualify for these spots that are expiring and I think our city should be one of them. This program is designed to target economically distressed areas in the state and I think our city would definitely stand out considering it is an area with low median household income and high unemployment. Here are some of the benefits offered by Enterprise zones:

• Businesses can earn $29,234 or more in state tax credits for hiring qualified employees that reside within the zone
• Corporations can earn sales tax credits on purchases or $20 million per year on qualified machinery and machinery parts
• Up front expensing of depreciable property
• Lenders and banks that lend to businesses operating inside a zone receive a tax deduction on the interest income for their loans
• Plus many more benefits...

Delano Record Article:
http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/052006_EntZone.pdf

How Jobs and Revenue Growth are stimulated in Enterprise Zones:

http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/052006_growth_stimulated.pdf

Application for Enterprise Zone Status:

http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/052006_EntZoneApp.pdf

California Association of Enterprise Zones:

http://www.caez.org/

I plan to bring this up at the next council meeting and see if this is something that we can come together and pull off before the deadline in September.