CLINTON’S ECONOMIC PACKAGE : California Business Takes an Optimistic View : Reaction: Companies worry about Clinton’s proposed new levies. But, in general, there’s a feeling that all will benefit if the program works.

For a wide variety of California businesses, there’s something to love and something to loathe in the wide-ranging economic package proposed by President Clinton on Wednesday.

Some companies fret about the likelihood of new taxes. Others worry about new costs for energy. Still others fear the loss of government programs.

But others applaud proposals to beef up worker training, increase tax credits and facilitate research and development.

In general, business owners and executives agree that if the program works, it will mean an improved economy for all--and that can only be good for business.

Still, the reactions vary, depending on whether the speaker is a citrus grower, a contractor or a banker. Their differing concerns suggest how the Clinton policies, if adopted, would ripple through the state’s economy.

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The New United Motor Manufacturing plant in Fremont, a car making joint venture between Toyota and General Motors, is perhaps the classic example of heavy industry in California. The last auto plant in the state, it employs 4,200 workers.

Like many California businesses, NUMMI’s primary concern is the increase in corporate income taxes. “It would impact our costs, and that is that much less we have to invest in our business,” NUMMI Vice President Dennis Cuneo said.

Such taxes would be offset in part by Clinton’s proposed investment tax credits, which NUMMI might use in a planned expansion of its truck manufacturing line.

But added costs could come in the form of a proposed new energy tax. Because the NUMMI plant uses huge amounts of electricity, a new tax would mean added costs “in the range of a couple of dollars per car.” And in a business where savings are measured in terms of pennies per car, that would be a significant cost.

But like other businesses, NUMMI could ultimately benefit from an improved economy. After all, jobless people can’t buy cars.

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Santa Clara-based SunDisk Corp. is perhaps the archetypal high-tech start-up company. The 4-year-old firm has grown into a $20-million maker of advanced solid-state disk components for portable computers with 120 employees. Its goal is to reach $1 billion in sales in a few years.

As it expands, the company will benefit greatly from the proposed 7% investment tax credit, which rewards companies that invest heavily in new equipment, and from the proposal to make permanent the research and development tax credit. “We spend a ton on R&D; and it’s our lifeblood for the ability to stay ahead,” said Eli Harari, president and chief executive.

It’s unclear whether SunDisk will benefit from a proposal to cut the capital gains tax for people who invest in small businesses and hold onto their investment for at least two years. Harari said such policies should help companies such as his, not just mom-and-pop operations.

“Our investors put up more than $30 million four years ago, and they are at least two years away from recouping,” he said. “But little companies like ours are the engines of growth.”

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The Clinton package’s proposal to tax fuels by their energy content is of particular concern to Richard Farman, chairman and chief executive of Southern California Gas Co. in Los Angeles.

“The gas company and natural gas industry are opposed to broad-based energy taxes as a form of deficit reduction, because they significantly tax what is a basic necessity,” he said.

It’s true such a tax would encourage conservation, a goal shared by the utility. But it is also likely that it will result in lower consumption of gas--something that could affect the company’s revenue.

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In Santa Paula, Alfonso Guilin is a senior executive of Limoneira Co., which grows, packs and ships lemons, oranges and avocados from 3,000 acres of prime Ventura County farmland. The company employs 300 to 400 people.

Like others, Guilin worries about higher taxes. But he added that the investment tax credit would make it easier for his company to plant new orchards, replace aging farm machinery and buy new trucks.

Because Limoneira grows citrus, it does not depend on direct farm subsidies, so would not be affected by any cuts in such programs.

But the company would suffer if Clinton’s program requires cuts in water subsidies or federal funds flowing to University of California extension programs, which provide valuable research and expertise to the state’s farmers.

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At computer equipment maker Hewlett-Packard Co. in Palo Alto, Larry Langdon, director of taxes and logistics, said the company is worried about a relatively unpublicized tax provision that would subject the overseas subsidiaries of American firms to U.S. income taxes for the first time.

If approved, the foreign subsidiary tax could cost H-P as much as $100 million a year, Langdon said. That’s five to 10 times more than the proposed increase in overall corporate income tax rates.

And that would hurt the company’s ability to compete with Japanese firms and other overseas competitors that do not face domestic taxes on subsidiaries in locations such as Singapore and Ireland.

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In Santa Monica, National Medical Enterprises Inc.--which operates 130 hospitals across the nation and employs 50,000 people--was withholding judgment on Clinton’s plan until the release of the President’s detailed health care proposals.

For now, the company is concerned about Clinton’s stated goal of placing strict limits on federal payments to health care providers. NME depends on Medicare and Medicaid for about 30% of its revenue.

But spokesman David Olson said there is a lot that could be done to relieve what he called the costly administrative burdens placed on health care companies to complete government paperwork.

In the meantime, NME stands to benefit from investment tax credits for continuing purchases of new equipment and from worker training and education.

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In the Leimert Park section of Los Angeles, general contractor Maxine Ransom Von Phul said she is encouraged by proposals to provide federal enterprise zone credits for businesses and to extend low-income housing credits in areas such as southern Los Angeles.

Those programs would help stimulate economic development in such neighborhoods--and that means more business for companies such as hers.

“I think the Clinton economic plan will enhance many small businesses,” she said.

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In Chinatown, Lippo Bank was heartened by Clinton’s calls for relaxing regulations on lending to businesses.

“We feel that the banking sector has been unnecessarily regulated,” said John Huang, vice chairman of the Hong Kong-based bank. “The whole economic sector will not improve until banks are allowed to lend money again.”

With $110 million in assets, Lippo has made a business of lending to small firms engaged in trade with the Pacific Rim.

The bank favors loosening of federal rules to allow more “character lending”--loans based as much on a borrower’s character as on numbers in an application.

Times staff writer Jonathan Weber contributed to this report.