Moorpark Bid to Lure Firm Suffers Setback : Business: State officials are unable to come up with the $5-million tax break that the Newhall company wants.

An effort to lure a 500-employee Newhall company to Moorpark with tax incentives may be collapsing after state officials said they cannot come up with a $5-million tax break the company wants.

The tax break is the cornerstone of an incentive package worth more than $8 million for Special Devices Inc., which makes small detonators used to spring car air bags.

State, county and city officials are still offering about $3 million worth of incentives, but representatives of the fast-growing company said it’s not enough to keep them from moving to Mesa, Ariz., where they have another plant.

Although company officials say they prefer to remain in California, they maintain that state taxes and local fees would make a Moorpark plant $10 million more expensive than if they built in Arizona.

The two sides plan to meet within a week, and company officials said they will reiterate that state tax breaks are essential to prevent their move. But representatives of state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) and Assemblyman Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard) said the Moorpark area is far too rich to qualify for state enterprise zone tax advantages.

“Maybe they are saying they are not clever enough to do what other legislators in Northern California were able to do,” said Joe Saline, vice president of Special Devices Inc.’s automotive division.

Saline said state Sen. Leroy Greene (D-Carmichael) was able to set up a special enterprise zone that gave Packard Bell an estimated $5 million in payroll and income tax credits to locate at an Army depot in Sacramento. Saline said he wants a similar deal for his company.

But research by Wright and Takasugi indicates that low unemployment and high income in Moorpark and Ventura County disqualify the area for enterprise zones, the lawmakers’ aides said.

“It is just not possible,” said John Theiss, a spokesman for Wright. “Every business would like a $5-million tax break, but there’s no way that Moorpark or Ventura (County) would qualify as enterprise zones.”

Theiss said that after Greene’s legislation established the enterprise zone for Packard Bell, between 30 and 50 laws were proposed for similar zones across the state, and none of them passed.

“The county, city and state have put together a most attractive offer to keep them in California,” Theiss said. “(The company) has to be impressed with the magnitude of the effort. Now it is in the company’s hands to make a decision. We would just be ecstatic if they decide to move to Moorpark. And if they decide to come, we will continue to offer them every assistance that we possibly can.”

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If it is not possible to pass legislation creating an enterprise zone in Moorpark, company officials want some other type of legislation, Saline said.

“We’re looking for some creativity from our local legislators to come up with something else,” he said. “It’s very expensive to do business in California, compared to other states. The tax credit thing would have been a great way of offsetting that cost, but if they can come up with some other thing with those amount of dollars, we would be satisfied.”

Using Moorpark City Councilman Scott Montgomery as an intermediary, the company is urging Wright and Takasugi to pledge in writing that they will look for an alternative tax credit equal to the one the firm would receive in an enterprise zone. Montgomery said he is optimistic that an agreement can still be reached that would satisfy the company.