Twilight Zones

REVIEW SUMMARY
What. Enterprise Zone program offers businesses corporate and sales tax credits for hiring zone residents.
Issue. Cost-effectiveness and economic benefits of program uncertain.
Impact. “The $64-million question.”
By The Numbers. Click here.

Florida was one of the first states to enable enterprise zones in 1982, and now the state may be one of the first to undo them.

Propped up with a palette of state and local tax exemptions and tax credits, enterprise zones seek to encourage economic development in blighted or economically depressed areas. Residents and businesses in places like East Tampa, part of downtown Fort Myers and Newtown in North Sarasota benefit from the tax incentives. (See map.)