GO-Biz serves as the State of California’s leader in job growth, economic development, and business assistance efforts. GO-Biz prides itself on offering free consultations for incentive identification, site selection, regulatory or permitting compliance assistance, foreign direct investment, and even export assistance. Every two years, GO-Biz submits an approved State Leadership Accountability Report to the department of finance and releases it to the public.

There are a number of laws in the Government Code that govern the operations of GO-Biz. It falls under sections that are known as the Economic Revitalization Act. Section 12096.2 actually establishes GO-Biz in state government within the governor’s office and also provides that a director shall oversee GO-Biz, and that director is appointed by, and responsible to the governor. Article 3 sets forth the powers and duties of GO-Biz, including that they shall serve the governor as the lead entity for economic strategy, as well as for marketing the State of California in regard to business development, private sector investment, and economic growth.

In addition, GO-Biz is called upon to encourage collaboration among both the public and the private sectors for promoting innovation, fostering relationships with overseas entities, conducting research regarding the budget, the state’s business climate, and efforts to support small businesses here in the State of California. The law also requires every member of the governor’s cabinet, all the agency secretaries, to identity a senior manager who coordinates business support activities with GO-Biz.

GO-Biz has a number of programs, including cannabis equity grants for local jurisdictions, the CalGold Program, California Community Reinvestment Grants, the California Competes Tax Credit, California Film Commission, California Made Program, the IBank, or Infrastructure Bank, International Trade and Investment, as well as the Office of the Small Business Advocate. GO-Biz also offers a number of digital service options that are provided to business owners to assist them with obtaining information and different resources for owning a business and operating a business here in the State of California. GO-Biz also assists in determining the types of permits that a business may need, how a business can apply for state tax credits, how to register a business, and, basically, how to find out any information on different regions and different occupations in the State of California.

You can find the full transcript of the audio in today’s post here.

Photo of Chris Micheli Chris Micheli

Chris Micheli is an attorney and legislative advocate for the Sacramento governmental relations firm of Aprea & Micheli, Inc. As a lobbyist in the labor and employment field, he was directly involved in the development of California’s changes to its Equal Pay Act. …

Chris Micheli is an attorney and legislative advocate for the Sacramento governmental relations firm of Aprea & Micheli, Inc. As a lobbyist in the labor and employment field, he was directly involved in the development of California’s changes to its Equal Pay Act. The Wall Street Journal (July 1998) called him “one of the top three business tax lobbyists in the state.” The Los Angeles Times (May 2005) described him as an “elite lobbyist,” and Capitol Weekly (August 2006) described him as a “prominent lobbyist.” He received his B.A. in Political Science – Public Service (1989) from the University of California, Davis and his J.D. (1992) from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. He serves as an Adjunct Professor at McGeorge School of Law.

Read more about Chris MicheliChris's Linkedin Profile
Show more Show less