Opportunity Zone Magazine Opportunity Zone Magazine Volume 1, Issue 1 | Page 15
CALIFORNIA STATE TREASURER FIONA MA
C
ali for nia St ate Trea su rer Fiona Ma ser ves a s
California’s head banker, overseeing the government’s
investment portfolio and accounts as well as managing
the state’s $92 billion in financial assets. She has chaired the
California State Board of Equalization, representing more
than nine million taxpayers, and served on the California
Assembly, where she acted Assembly pro tempore. Prior to
that, she served as a San Francisco supervisor, leading the
effort to create the city’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise
program to empower small businesses to participate in public
works projects. Ma, a certified public accountant, has also
worked for Ernst & Young before starting her own accounting
practice in San Francisco.
What are the goals and priorities for the state of
California under your leadership when it comes to
Opportunity Zones?
Opportunity Zones utilize tax incentives to encourage private
investor investments in otherwise less lucrative community
development opportunities. The state’s goals for these
programs is to leverage these dollars to encourage desperately
needed housing and infrastructure in the communities that
need them most. My office will lead outreach and project
acceleration efforts, while Governor Gavin Newsom’s GO-Biz
team will lead on policy development.
What do you hope the Opportunity Zone program will
bring to our economy, especially to California?
The Opportunity Zone program will serve as the carrot,
which will hopefully direct private equity and philanthropic
investments towards our most underserved communities
in need. A true spirit of public-private collaboration will
hopefully be created.
Why do you think Opportunity Zone participants should
chose to invest in California?
California is open for business! We are the world’s 5th largest
economy, we embrace and celebrate diversity, and a tradition
of innovation has helped guide our growth.
Does California have any plans to add any additional
incentives to draw investors to California and its
Opportunity Zones?
The beginning of my term, January 2019 was hallmarked by
my five-city Affordable Housing Listening Tour. These events
provided my administration with an opportunity to connect
with over 200 stakeholders, including developers, advocates and
investors. The results of these conversations have encouraged
my team to explore reforms to the affordable housing tax credit
process, namely making the California Tax Credit Allocation
Committee and California Debt Limit Allocation Committee’s
regulations and application processes more customer-friendly
and less arbitrary. These changes will spur additional private
sector investment in proposed affordable housing projects in
the same way that Opportunity Zone policy will. In confluence,
these policies represent the mindset that we need to have in
California regarding the private sector’s role in solving our most
vexing social programs through public-private partnerships our
citizens can be proud of.
How can we expect California to conform aspects of its
tax code with Opportunity Zone legislation and when
can investors expect to see changes?
Governor Newsom in his 2019-20 state budget proposal has
proposed tax conformity related to affordable housing and green
technology (this could be expanded in the Legislature over the
spring during budget deliberations). The changes would begin to
emerge as proposals in the spring and if adopted would be part of
the final state budget package that is finalized in June.
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