The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin has an informative interview with San Bernardino Valley Enterprise Zone manager Wendy Clements that I’s sure readers will enjoy. For example, the following question and answer:

Q: You’ve said that only 68 businesses in the enterprise zone were reaping their tax advantages in 2008 and that hundreds more could be eligible for the same benefits. Has last year’s number increased or decreased?

Clements: We had 67 companies for the first half of this year versus 68 for all of 2008, so the trend is already higher. We’re making an impact … although we’d like to see the number 10 times what it is. But it’s not going to happen overnight.

As of June 30, there were over 500 vouchers, which means 500 employees in our area (are contributing) to those 67 companies receiving state tax incentives.

I hope the number of businesses will double by the end of this year, but we’d want it to be even more than that. These are great incentives. There’s a lot of money left on the table for businesses.

Q: What are some reasons that business owners are complacent in seeing whether or not they qualify for the zone’s tax advantages and other incentives?

Clements: The reaction we get is, `Why does government want to help me?’ They think anything involved with the government is cumbersome, but then they realize how easy it is. There’s a distrusting of government.

Once we get them to a workshop or one-on-one meeting, we put it in easier terms to understand rather than if they read some franchise tax board law on their own. They have a different outlook on what the enterprise zone is. We’re here to help them with anything they need. We want to see their business grow, expand and stay here.