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goals. Our past concerted efforts in this area have been highly successful in providing funds for capital projects, information system improvements, and ongoing and new operating programs. Through the efforts of our departments and the city-wide grants task force, the City secured $77.8 million in competitive grant funding in fiscal year 2004-2005. Finally, the City will continue to maintain its prudent investment policy that emphasizes, in priority order: safety, liquidity and yield. In following this policy, cash temporarily idle during the coming year will be invested in secure investments including V.S. government securities and the State Local Agency Investment Fund. I. Attract and Retain a Prosoerous Business Community A key component in enhancing our economic base is the City's focus on business attraction and retention. The State's designation of approximately 99 percent of the City's commercial and industrial land use as an Enterprise Zone provides a competitive edge in this endeavor. This designation enables the City to offer significant state tax credits and other fmancial incentives to businesses. Since Santa Ana received its designation in June 1993, close to 21,000 new employees have been hired through our program with over 800 companies having earned tax credit vouchers. Our Enterprise Zone program continues to be recognized as one of the top performing enterprise zones in the State. Over the past year, the Enterprise Zone incentives were instrumental in several company decisions to relocate or expand in Santa Ana, including Grainger, Cramer Decker, Memory Experts, New Century Mortgage, Westridgelabs, GNK Automotive, Instant Jungle, Abel Catering.. As the Enterprise Zone incentives are a key element of our ability to achieve this goal to attract and retain a prosperous business community, this year the City will continue to work with key State officials to authorize legislation to extend our designation through 2013. Another important element in the City's business attraction and retention efforts is the use of mechanisms that induce private sector investment in our redevelopment project areas. For example, in the 2003-04 fiscal year, the Redevelopment Agency issued approximately $20 million in Tax Allocation Bonds to finance the acquisition of property and site preparation for the expansion of the Santa Ana Auto Mall. There are currently nine auto dealers in the mall generating approximately $3.7 million in annual sales tax revenue for the General Fund. In addition to enhancing the viability of these dealerships, it is anticipated that the increase in the volume of automobile sales resulting from this expansion will generate an additional $750,000 in annual sales tax revenue. Another major focus in this area for the 2005-2006 fiscal year will be the continued implementation of the strategic plan for the Empowerment Zone. Designated in January 1999, Santa Ana's Federal Empowerment Zone provides needed programs and services to our residents and businesses. To date, the Empowerment Zone Board has allocated close to $25 million in program funds. As the funding allocation for this program is on a year-to-year basis and, thereby, is unpredictable, the business plan of the Empowerment Zone Board includes leveraging the existing $14.9 million over the next three years to continue providing programs to the businesses and residents within the Zone boundaries. Furthermore, the Santa Ana Federal Empowerment Zone has created a tracking system to monitor and issue federal tax incentives to the Santa Ana community. Consistent with the federal government's restructuring efforts, as of 2002, any Empowerment Zone business that hires or currently employs Zone residents will receive an annual federal tax credit of up to $3,000. To date, the Empowerment Zone has issued 1000 federal tax incentives, equating to $3.0 million in federal savings for businesses within our Empowerment Zone. As a result of these efforts, the V.S Department of Housing and Urban Development has identified Santa Resolution No. eRA 2005-003 Page 18 of 22 11