Gavin Newsom Visits Women's Initiative!

San Francisco's photogenic mayor proved his camera-readiness with our--admittedly attractive--Women's Initiative staffers last Wednesday!

Gavin Newsom visited Women's Initiative's San Francisco headquarters to hold a focus group on the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development's program: Enterprise Zone Tax Credits for SF Businesses.

San Francisco businesses are eligible for substantial tax benefits through two enterprise zone programs.

The state Enterprise Zone program enables businesses in targeted locations to reduce their state income tax liability. These areas include; Hunters Point, Bayview, Chinatown, Financial District, SOMA, North Beach, Embarcadero, Mission, Potrero Hill, Tenderloin, Civic Center etc. The size of the business doesn’t matter, it can be a large company or a small restaurant.
Tax benefits include:

• Up to 35,100 in state income tax credits for each qualified employee hired over 5 years.
• Sales and use tax credits on purchases of qualified machinery an parts, including computers, data processing and telecommunications equipment.
• Up-front expensing of certain depreciable property.
• Application of unused tax credits to future tax credits.
• Up to 100% Net Operating Loss carry forward.
• Net interest deduction for Zone business lenders, etc.

The Mayor said that this is a great program, but few business are taking advantage of it. He came to the community for feedback. Forty stakeholders, among them Organizations like MEDA, La Cocina, Women’s Initiative, and the SF Chamber of Commerce gave him input on how to promote it and reach especially small business owners. They said that the information needs to be simple, accessible and translated into every language.

For more info about the program you can check the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development website.

(Photo of Gavin Newsom with Alma Elizondo, Women's Initiative's SuccessLink/Avance Associate.)