Here’s Food for Thought . . . San Jose’s Samsung partnership is smart public policy.

For the past two weeks,headlines have read that San Jose was preparing to give Samsung Semiconductor $7 million to expand its Research and Development facilities on North First Street.

The incentive package was not in cash, but rather, in reduced fees like traffic impact fees, utility taxes and production and assembly equipment purchases.

The upside? Samsung will grow its Research and Development workforce from its current head count of 370 high-tech, high-skilled, high-wage jobs to an anticipated 2,000 employees ten years from today.  That’s 1,630 new high-tech jobs in San Jose.

Much has been written about the $7 million incentive package, but little of the coverage has mentioned the $23 million that will be generated for city residents from the Samsung expansion in terms of property tax revenue, business and utility taxes. That is a net gain of $16 million.

In addition, the City wisely included “Claw Back” provisions that Samsung would need to pay if the promised jobs and expansion never materialize.

Why does this matter to San Jose residents? Easy.  Samsung is creating hundreds of new jobs for future employees, on a project which will also create hundreds of construction jobs to build the ten-story building and nine-story parking structure. In addition, San Jose shows it can compete against other regions, states and nations. Kudos to Mayor Reed and the City Council for a wise investment with a three-fold return.

Here’s Food for Thought…  “Turning red tape to red carpet.”

The phrase coined by my friend and colleague Lucy Dunn, my counterpart at the Orange County Business Council, could not be more appropriate in describing the leadership of Assembly Speaker John Perez and his Assembly colleagues. The Assembly unanimously passed Speaker Perez’s Assembly Bill 113 on Monday to ensure the business filing processing time at the Secretary of State’s office is streamlined from a currently unacceptable 63 days to no more than 5 business days by November.

It recently came to light that the Secretary of State’s office has a backlog of at least 122,000 business filings, primarily from startups and small businesses. In an increasingly competitive world, large states like New York manage their filings within seven business days and Texas is down to five business days. Adding insult to injury, in the Golden State where the heart of technology reigns, much of the business filings process cannot even be done online as it is in these other states.

This is sound policy, coupled with standards and accountability, and solid leadership by Speaker Perez. It’s also why I was proud to be asked to serve as his primary witness before the Budget Committee and to speak first at his press conference upon passage of the bill off the Assembly Floor. I later met with state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg who proactively promised, similar quick action, in the upper House.

This is the type of bi-partisan action we need in Sacramento to keep California moving.