The California Controller Race

Today's San Luis Obispo The Tribune features a profile of the four candidates running for State Controller. My attention was grabbed by this reference to Enterprise Zones in the section about Democrat Joe Dunn:

Dunn will focus on the auditors aspect of the controllers power. He is "the only individual with the power to audit every single dollar, ever year, and protect the taxpayer." One of his first audit targets would be enterprise zones, set up 25 years ago to promote business in economically depressed areas by giving tax breaks. "Its a great theory," Dunn says, but 39 zones have been created in 25 years and not one has disappeared, as they would have had they come to life economically. "The loss of tax dollars to enterprise zones has been hundreds of millions of dollars a year," he says. "Thats OK if it works, but nobody has ever looked to see if its true."