Barstow Using Zone Carefully

Desert Dispatch newspaper - Barstow, California:

"The hospital seeks to increase its staff from 250 to 300, once a new facility is built by 2009. Of those, Murphy said the hospital would be eligible to get tax credits for about 10 to 15 employees. However, if a manufacturing plant was built within the zone and hired 300 new employees, it could receive tax breaks for about 45 employees. Therefore, the council directed staff to hold off on applying for expansion of the zone. “We have to maximize the credit opportunities that the zone offers,’’ Gomez said. The city isn’t required to put in an application to expand its zone right now, Murphy said, but it would do so within the next five years. The business enterprise zone program is in place for the next 15 years."