Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. has announced three of five Hiring Credit pilot areas as part of the Governor’s Economic Development Initiative which was designed to help bolster California’s business climate and put Californians to work.
The three announced pilot areas are: the geographic boundaries of the former Enterprise Zone area in the City of Merced; the geographic boundaries of the former Enterprise Zone area in the City of Fresno; and the numerous census tracts in the unincorporated areas of Riverside County that have high unemployment and high poverty rates.
“While California’s economy is continuing to improve, too many areas of the state are still suffering high unemployment and poverty rates,” said Speaker PA!Xrez (D-Los Angeles). “We worked to address that by passing new employment credits to spur hiring in hard hit areas. Today’s announcement of pilot programs in the City of Merced, the City of Fresno, and parts of Riverside County that have particularly high unemployment and poverty rates, will ensure that even more Californians can be hired under this innovative program.”
One provision of the Initiative is the New Employment Credit. The bill package established a new hiring tax credit for businesses that create new jobs in areas with high unemployment rates and poverty. In Pilot areas the credits are available for wages paid between $10 and $28 per hour, instead of the $12 and $28 per hour required in non-pilot areas in the state. The credits are targeted at businesses who hire those that fit the “hard to hire” category (long-term unemployed, veterans, felons, Earned Income Tax Credit recipients, and those on CalWorks).
The New Employment Credit is available for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2014, and before January 1, 2021, to qualified taxpayers that hire a qualified full-time employee on or after January 1, 2014. In order to be allowed a credit, the qualified taxpayer must have a net increase in full-time employees in California, determined on an annual full-time equivalent basis.
