From the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin:

As businesses in the San Bernardino area feel the recession’s tightening financial squeeze, the San Bernardino Economic Development Agency is hoping final approval of the San Bernardino Valley Enterprise Zone comes by March 1.

“Everyone has signed it, except the county,” said Kathleen Robles, enterprise zone project manager, about paperwork that needs signatures before it gets shipped to the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development for final passage.

The state’s 42 enterprise zones give tax breaks to businesses in exchange for keeping their doors open in economically-depressed areas, areas where a majority of the work force consists of low-income families and individuals.

The Agua Mansa Enterprise Zone’s 15-year designation ran out in October 2006, and San Bernardino Valley Enterprise Zone wants to pick up where the Agua Mansa zone left off. It includes parts of San Bernardino, Colton and San Bernardino County.

But California’s budget crisis has put the enterprise zones in jeopardy as the state looks for ways to find money.

The budget crisis has forced the state to cut two of the six key enterprise zone incentives, Robles said.

“I’m not sure how long that limitation is going to stay around,” she said.

Another final approval would secure those tax breaks until October 2021.

For some businesses, final approval of tax incentives until 2021 couldn’t come at a better time. Inland Empire companies are fighting some of the slowest sales they’ve ever seen.

“It definitely contributes to whether or not (businesses) stay in the area,” said Marcus Pleonastic, a tax consultant with RAM Medicare Inc.’s Irvine office who works with enterprise zone businesses in the Inland Empire. “By them being in that area, they’re spurring the economic growth there.”