State Enterprise Zones

The concept of enterprise zones, with its promise to unleash the private sector in low-income areas, presents both opportunities and problems for state government. States currently face escalating costs and steady or dwindling resources. Ideally, enterprise zones would reduce short-term revenues to promote long-term development. This would involve minimizing government's role in both regulating and underwriting current programs. This risk, along with how the zones would be managed, are pressing questions for states. Can partnerships be forged among local government, business, labor, and community organizations? We argue that answers to these questions must reflect democracy of the 1980s and lessons of the last several decades. In that light, we discuss state approaches to and role in promulgating enterprise zones.