CASH FOR JOBS MAY BE CUT.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

Saying they better not write checks they can't cash, Lancaster and Palmdale are moving to reduce the ``dollars for jobs'' program down to an incentive of no more than $500 per job instead of $1,000.

For the second year in a row the two cities are looking to scale back the 4-year-old Business Attraction Incentive Program, which debuted as an incentive of up to $2,000 per job, but was cut in half last year.

The move was endorsed Tuesday by the Antelope Valley Regional Partnership, an economic steering committee comprised of staff from both cities, Los Angeles County representatives, and private industry.

``The program was created as a jump start for the economy,'' said Stafford Parker, Lancaster's redevelopment agency director and a partnership board member. ``It wasn't intended to be a be-all and end-all forever.''

Announced in March 1993, the Business Attraction Incentive Program is aimed at companies able to provide at least 25 additional jobs and willing to make at least a $1 million investment in land, buildings and equipment. Retailers are excluded.

The program originally was intended to end after one year, but was extended because of its success, officials from both cities said.

Among the program's success stories is the relocation of Rexhall Industries' motor home manufacturing plant from Santa Clarita to Lancaster. Rexhall started operations in Lancaster in 1996 and employs more than 200 people.

But the program also is proving to be costly. Lancaster alone has spent more than $1.2 million on the program since its inception.

The two cities have other tools to use for attracting jobs, notably the recently created enterprise zone. The zone, which covers virtually all commercial and industrial land in the Antelope Valley, provides state tax incentives to businesses.

``We've got a tool so much more powerful than the BAIP,'' Palmdale Assistant City Manager Ron Creagh said of the enterprise zone.