Today, I joined Governor Schwarzenegger to visit the site of a company that chose to stay in our great city and preserve 600 jobs for hard-working Angelenos. I want to thank Baxter BioScience for turning to our Office of Economic and Business Policy when they began to have doubts about Los Angeles being the best city for them to call home. I'm glad we made our case, and I think we proved that our jobs and economic development team -- with First Deputy Austin Beutner at the helm -- is willing to go above and beyond the call of duty.
Since last February, my office has been meeting with Baxter to figure out we could do to keep their company and the vital jobs it has created here in Los Angeles. We listened to the employees of Baxter and learned how to develop and implement policies that will attract and retain businesses as well as create good-paying jobs right here in Los Angeles. And then we worked hard to actually make that vision a reality!
In fact, one particularly smart, business-savvy policy -- the approval of Los Angeles' State Enterprise Zone -- directly contributed to Baxter's decision to stay. When the East Side Enterprise Zone was expanded to include Baxter BioScience, the company was able to lower their operating costs with their new-found eligibility for special tax credits.
And this is happening to companies throughout the entire City. As we have aggressively expanded our enterprise zones, Los Angeles has gained the remarkable distinction of having the most acreage with enterprise zone designation -- out of every city in California!
The bottom line here is that Baxter is just one example, since it is impossible to know how many other companies have decided to stay in LA and hire more people because of the tax credits and deductions they gained from being in a Special Economic Zone.
Baxter represents the results-driven approach to our newly refocused Office of Economic and Business Policy.
And today, we have an exciting announcement that will give Los Angeles businesses another tool to help them thrive and grow: the Business Tax Holiday will attract new enterprise to Los Angeles by exempting them from any gross receipts tax for three years.
The effectiveness of tax holidays has been proven: my office commissioned a study at USC Business School that suggested the Business Tax Holiday would yield no loss in tax revenue. In fact, it would spur enough job growth to create more tax revenue. This tax holiday will create an estimated 55,000 new jobs with 12% unemployment. That is exactly the kind of jump start our economy needs.
I am proud of the fact that our office is leveraging every resource at our disposal to put Angelenos back to work, and I am thrilled that Baxter reached out to us and ultimately chose to stay in LA.
So on that note, I would like to thank Baxter again for believing in our City and for inviting us here today to celebrate a major milestone in their evolution as a company.