To: Negrete, Tom - Sacramento
Subject: RE: article for submission

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Feng 
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 6:23 PM
Subject: article for submission


As the state legislature's budget conference committee continues to deliberate over the fate of millions of Californians who rely on public services, new research by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) has concluded that the state's enterprise zone program, which employs tax breaks and tax credits to businesses to spur job creation, “has no effect on job or business creation.”

These findings effectively repudiate the arguments of those who say that California cannot raise taxes to balance its budget, because doing so will cause valuable businesses and jobs to flee the Golden State.

The article below provides an analysis of the PPIC findings within the context of California's economy and budget crisis and lays out a compelling case for eliminating all tax breaks associated with the enterprise zone program and similar types of programs to balance the budget.

Sincerely,
Peter Feng
AFSCME
Strategic Communications Group
2101 Webster Street #1850
Oakland, CA  94612