Bradley, Kemp Push Enterprise Zone Plan : Cities: The L.A. mayor warns of urban ‘despair and rage.’ HUD’s secretary says the program would create jobs and nurture local economies.

WASHINGTON —  Warning that the nation’s cities are “full of despair and rage,” Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley urged Congress on Wednesday to swiftly approve the Bush Administration’s expanded enterprise zone proposal as a first step in reversing the flight of jobs from blighted urban areas.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp, appearing with Bradley before a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, also urged Congress to pass the $2.3-billion program, which he said would create jobs and “empower the poor” by nurturing local economies and making investment capital more readily available to small businesses willing to locate in depressed areas.

Kemp, however, sidestepped questions from committee Democrats on how the Administration would pay for the plan, and he evaded efforts to persuade him to endorse a broader, more costly Democratic package of urban aid proposals also formulated in the wake of the Los Angeles riots.

Bradley, in Washington with Gov. Pete Wilson and other California officials to discuss the aid package with President Bush and congressional leaders, also made it clear that he wants far more from the Administration than enterprise zones--a concept in which businesses would receive tax incentives for investing in depressed areas.

What the Bush Administration is offering is “not going to solve the problems” faced by Los Angeles and other large cities, but “we have to start somewhere and the enterprise zones (proposal) is ready for action,” the mayor said.

Meeting with reporters later, Bradley praised the Administration’s proposal as an important first step. But, alluding to concerns among Democrats that Bush may not support their calls to create more summer jobs or expand programs like Head Start, Bradley said the enterprise zone proposal must not be “the end of the urban agenda, just the beginning of one.”

The appearance by Kemp and other officials before the Senate Finance Committee came a day after the White House signaled a willingness to compromise on the urban summer jobs program being pushed by Democrats in return for Democratic acceptance of the enterprise zone proposals.

The expanded package now being pressed by the White House would allow urban or rural areas nationwide that qualify based on blight, crime, unemployment and other criteria to be classified as enterprise zones. There, new businesses--which also would need to meet certain criteria--would receive special tax incentives, including accelerated write-offs and exemptions from capital gains taxes.

Unemployed residents of the area taking jobs as a result of the investments would receive a refundable earned-income tax credit as an incentive to get off welfare.

Urging Congress to act before its July 4 recess, Kemp said passage of the legislation would help give impoverished communities access to capital and credit and would help to “empower the poor” by making it easier to set up their own businesses and develop stakes in their communities.

“While we cannot forget the safety net, we must also build a ladder of opportunity . . . . There are not enough federal troops and police in America to bring stability to areas where people have no stake in their communities,” Kemp said.

Although Democrats generally welcomed the proposal, which was similar to one already passed by Congress as part of a tax bill that Bush vetoed in March, several senators said it would be of little value unless coupled to the job training and education initiatives they also want Bush to accept.

“We could have the finest enterprise zone in the country (in Los Angeles) and we could have all the widget companies in America move there,” Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.) said. “But they’re not going to hire the Crips and the Bloods if they don’t have the skills and the education.

“You’ve got to put the two together and train these kids for the opportunities they are going to be given.”