I’ve learned from a source I know that the Treasury’s Internal Revenue Service will close its branch in Van Nuys and possibly move its operation to Santa Clarita, bringing with it nearly 200 federal jobs. The move should occur during summer 2012.
I’ve pinged those who usually know about corporate/government relocations to the SCV and they either said they hadn’t heard about it or didn’t respond. So take this for what it’s worth: a rumor, but I have confidence in my source.
The current IRS office in Van Nuys appears to be a typical IRS service branch, with several services offered to the public. Its current location is at the Van Nuys civic center, familiar to many an SCVer who have had the misfortune of being called for jury duty there.
If this is true, it’s great news from an economic standpoint. Federal jobs tend to be stable jobs, and service branches (like the DMV, or Post Office or a library) generate reliable and steady traffic. Plus, government services tend to cluster, meaning that as the North County region continues to grow, perhaps more federal agencies will look to Santa Clarita. Indeed, the Postal Service has already invested a lot in the SCV.
But on a more cultural level, having the IRS -the federal government’s tax collection agency- call the SCV its home is also deliciously ironic in that the SCV is a hotbed of anti-tax Tea Party activism where Laffer Curve adherents and Grover Norquist devotees hold yearly anti-tax protests in front of City Hall.
I mean, can you think of a more ironic or awkward arrangement? It’d be like the GOP holding a presidential nominating convention in San Francisco’s Castro District.
Comments (11)