California Budget Project Refuted

I have previously discussed the California Budget Project's report called "California'’s Enterprise Zones Miss the Mark" and some of the shortcomings that I felt it contained. Today a coalition of organizations has released a counter report authored by Professor Ted K. Bradshaw, Ph.D. of the University of California, Davis entitled "How California's Enterprise Zones Have Saved the State From Decline."

I, so far, have an exclusive on making this report available online - here (PDF).

In addition, here is the press release accompanying the report. (Also PDF) All of the member organizations of the coalition are listed there.

Professor Bradshaw's report makes several critiques of the CBP report:

• The report fails to document the fact that the EZ program has helped save and revive many disadvantaged areas of the state by making an effective and positive contribution to California'’s economic development. The CBP report mistakenly claims that the problem lies in some areas which were previously struggling and are now successful.
• The report fails to document how the EZ program actually hits the mark since much of the program's costs are actually very effective economic development expenditures. The report has no basis to recommend a dramatic dwarfing of the program by substantially reducing the number of zones, limiting benefits to companies that "create new jobs,"” and constrict the categories of employees who qualify for vouchers.
• The CBP report is seriously out of date even as it purports to provide a current assessment of the failings of the EZ program.
• The CBP report entirely misses the point of why the California EZ program works.

Dr. Bradshaw repeatedly emphasizes how the CBP report makes critical accusations against the Enterprise Zone program without any actual data to back up their claims. They claim that the TEA provision is abused because some wealthy people may live in a TEA, but they do not provide any quantitative evidence to support that this is a widespread issue. They claim that the Enterprise Zone program is abused because employers stand to gain from "churning" their workforce, but they provide no evidence that a survey has shown this to be an actual practice (Dr. Bradshaw's research indicated that churning does not take place).

I found the CBP report favorably reported in over half-a-dozen newspapers, will any write about Dr. Bradshaw's report?