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TO SCHWARZENEGGER: "SAVE OUR TAX CREDITS !"

SACRAMENTO - California State Controller Steve Westly has asked Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger to use his special session of the Legislature in November to extend the life of the manufacturers investment tax credit, which would otherwise expire December 31.

The Legislature failed to renew it in its last session, according to a recent story in the Silicon Valley-San Jose Business Journal.

Schwarzenegger has said he wants the Legislature to convene in a special session right after his inauguration, expected November 17. The session would deal with the state's workers' compensation insurance crisis and state operating budget matters.
 
But Westly told reporters Friday in San Jose that the session should also deal with the tax credit.

"The manufacturing base of the state has been hit and we need to stand up now and make sure manufacturers in this state know they are welcome and continue to be competitive by having California headquarters," Westly told a press conference.
 
"This state has always pulled people of all socio-economic status through jobs and manufacturing. If we lose these jobs, we all fail and slide down the rungs of the ladder," says Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group.
 
The manufacturers investment tax credit, or MIC as it is often called, was put into effect in the early 1990s when the state was mired in a different recession. It is a sales tax exemption available to California manufacturing companies when purchasing equipment.

Supporters say it's a way of helping the state's slowing manufacturing sector.
 
Westly was in San Jose to address a luncheon marking the 25th anniversary of the manufacturing group.
 
TAIWAN MANUFACTURER TO BUILD MORE PLANTS

TAIPEI - Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp., Taiwan's second largest display-panel maker, plans to build three new Taiwanese plants in the next six years to supply the growing liquid-crystal-display TV market.
 
The total investment is estimated to be $9 billion, the company said.

Taiwan's two largest makers of thin-film-transistor LCD panels, Chi Mei and AU Optronics Corp., together supply about 20% of the world market.

TFT-LCD displays, initially used in notebook computers, are now gradually replacing traditional cathode-ray-tube desktop computer monitors and TV screens.

Construction has begun on the first fab, or fabrication plant, that uses the advanced, 5.5-generation technology. The plant could begin production in early 2005.

Chi Mei Opto is planning to build another seventh-generation plant by 2006 and a third one later based on state-of-the-art technologies, it said.

The latest generation TFT-LCD panel plants process larger substrates - the glass from which panels are cut - and are more efficient in producing larger panels.

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