New chapters in corporate development, tax reform.

THERE'S a new group in town. And its very existence indicates things may be speeding up on the 101 Corridor.

The organization is the Association for Corporate Growth, which has set up a chapter on this stretch of freeway which over the past decade has seen great growth from technology and other companies.

The corporate sprawl stalled when the tech boom sputtered out and many of these companies have been quiet in recent years. But if attendance at an inaugural reception of the 101 chapter of ACG in Westlake Village last week is any indication, there's more interest in the bedrock of our local corporate scene--the middle market company.

About 70 people showed up to learn more about the group, to join it or just to network with executives of local firms and their associates. Among the attendees were people who do business with these companies including leaders in private equity, finance and professional service firms who help get these firms to the next level.

ACG, which has international reach with 8,000 members and 44 chapters worldwide, has a goal of providing opportunities for firms that want to grow as well as giving them forums where they can learn how to do that and meet people who will help them get increased corporate value. Increasing revenues and profits and stakeholder value overall is the goal.

Networking, of course, is the main activity. But local chapter officials hope to have informative programs for their members to showcase success stories in corporate development. There's a lot of those stories out there locally.

Taxing Efforts

Come on, Mayor Hahn, how can you trash such potential goodwill--goodwill your office could have garnered by throwing support to business tax reform instead of raiding the fund set up to implement it?

It seemed that within seconds after the Business Tax Advisory Committee and two L.A. City Councilpeople had come up with proposals for reducing business taxes, Hahn proposed that he would raid the trust fund set up to achieve this lowering of taxes.

He said he's going to use the money in part to hire more auditors so ultimately the city can get more money from business tax scofflaws. That's all good but Hahn misses the point. We're talking about $5 million from the fund, certainly not enough to save the city's budget on its own. Whether the mayor uses it to hire more auditors or not, taking the money sends a really bad message to business.

After all the hard work members of BTAC and other businesspeople have put in to fix our horrible city tax system, Hahn's action basically can be interpreted as a symbolic "who cares." We need the $5 million bucks.

Tax reform is very important to businesses in the city, so any action that can be interpreted as being counterproductive to reform efforts really hurts.

Business Journal Editor Jason Schaff can be reached at [phone] or at jschaff at sfvbj.com.