Make Los Angeles More Business Friendly

The City of Los Angeles has been consistently ranked as one of the most expensive cities to do business in the entire United States.  High tax rates, burdensome regulations and bureaucratic red tape have led many job creators to avoid Los Angeles or move to neighboring cities. 

Making Los Angeles more business friendly is the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce’s top advocacy priority.  We have partnered with city officials and fellow stakeholders to advocate for pro-business, pro-jobs reforms that will spur our economy and generate more local investment. 

Take Action:

• Support L.A. City Business Tax Reforms:   The L.A. Area Chamber continues to advocate for comprehensive business tax reforms including: 
  • Across-the-board tax rate reductions for all businesses, especially those in the “catch all” professions and occupations category.
  • Simpler and faster process for job-creators to obtain business licenses and other necessary permits in order to begin operations.
  • Ensuring a fairer and more consistent process for businesses to address city tax audits or other challenges. 

• Support Permit & Planning Streamlining:  The City of Los Angeles has a notoriously difficult permit and planning process.  The Chamber has partnered with the Mayor and City Council to make this system work once again.  Goals include:
  • Reducing the number of city departments a business must interact with from 12 to just one or two.  This will eliminate much of the delay and confusion when dealing with multiple offices on one matter.
  • Update L.A.’s zoning code to make the process more efficient and reflect the needs of a 21^st century city.
  • Improve the expedite process for projects in order to get shovel and finance-ready projects underway as soon as possible.  This will help create much-needed jobs immediately.

Recent successes include:

• 3-Year Tax Exemption for All New Businesses.  The Chamber pushed hard to expand L.A. City’s gross receipts tax exemption for new businesses.  In July 2010, the City Council approved a new three-year exemption for every new business regardless of annual income.
• L.A. City Office of Economic Analysis (OEA).  The Chamber proposed creating this office in City Hall to help lawmakers better evaluate the potential economic impacts of new legislation.  Staffed by non-partisan economists, the OEA will analyze a proposed policy’s effects on private sector job creation, the City’s business competitiveness and the overall economy.  The City Council unanimously approved initial funding to establish the office in July 2010.