Eric Garcetti, 42, represents the Hollywood area on the Los Angeles City Council. He was elected in 2001 and served several years as council president. He is the son of Gil Garcetti, former Los Angeles County district attorney. He met with the Business Journal recently to discuss the issues related to business and the local economy in the mayor’s race. Here is a transcript, edited for brevity:

Question: Do you favor immediate elimination of the gross receipts tax?

Answer: I personally favor as close to immediate as you can get. But I back the 15-year phase-out plan that was put forward by the Business Tax Advisory Committee as a reasonable way to get there. You have to be responsible to your budget, if there’s not a dollar-for-dollar replacement of revenue. Also, the plan would immediately cut the rates for the top categories in half. We would go instantly from being the very top city in the county in business tax to the middle of the pack; that would send a very strong signal.

The living-wage law now applies to city contractors and hotels. Would you work to expand living-wage laws to other private-sector businesses in the city?

I only favor putting forward the living wage if there’s something that business is getting out of it. It has to be a fair exchange. Are you a business getting a city subsidy for development? Then it’s a fair thing to ask them to pay a living wage in return.

The 12-2 permit streamlining program – going from 12 city agencies having to sign off on a project to just two – ultimately went nowhere as it got caught up in turf battles among city bureaucrats. Would you try this again?

Yes. I’m the one who put that idea forward. But it actually might happen before Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa leaves office. There’s a massive consolidation of city departments now on the table. Permit streamlining is the most critical thing we can do both for development and for small business. I recently introduced License 123, where a business owner can get local, state and federal licenses and permits all in one place. That’s the kind of cutting-edge approach I want to use as mayor.

Do you support the Hollywood Millennium project as currently proposed, with two towers of over 500 feet surrounding the Capitol Records building?

I’m absolutely for it, just not on the height of the two towers. This is a nuance that people did not realize when I spoke out on the project at the Planning Commission hearing. It’s a very important project, in line with the type of project we like to see in Hollywood. I just told the developer that the towers are just too tall. I’ve already had some discussions with the developer about coming back with different heights for those buildings.

Are there industries that deserve favorable treatment from the city? If so, which industries?

Green jobs is one of these; so is technology. We also have to reimagine aerospace and we need to raise the $100 million cap on state tax credits for filming so we can keep our entertainment industry here. But we can’t do all this in a vacuum. I want to convene the mayors of all 88 cities in Los Angeles County together in one room to talk about what industries we as a region need to attract and retain. We all need to be on the same page as a region.

The city has given major incentive packages to electric vehicle makers BYD and Coda, as well as the owner of the venue for Cirque du Soleil. Those packages haven’t met expectations. Next time someone comes to the city wanting similar incentives, would you favor giving them those incentives?

Whenever you’re doing economic development, there are some hits and misses. In the Cirque du Soleil case in my district, the loan went to the owners of the theater and of the Hollywood & Highland shopping complex. And those owners are making good on their payments to the city. Look, everyone complains that we’re business unfriendly, so that’s why it’s important to put some money on the table upfront, so these cutting-edge businesses don’t go to Austin or somewhere else. Do we want to hit more home runs? Sure, and that means having top-quality staff to evaluate the proposals. But do we want to get out of the incentive business? Absolutely not.

Do you think the north runway at Los Angeles International Airport should be moved 260 feet further north as currently proposed?

I don’t favor that. Ninety-five percent of what we need to do to modernize the airport doesn’t require this. We need things like consolidated car rental operations and to make sure our terminals don’t resemble crumbling developing-world airports. Moving the north runway would mean closing down and completely restructuring Lincoln Boulevard; if you thought Carmageddon was bad, this would be worse for all traffic on the Westside.

The BNSF rail yard is considered crucial to keep the Port of Los Angeles competitive. Yet it has taken more than six years to go through the approval process. What steps would you take to move projects like this through more quickly?

What has slowed the BNSF rail yard project up has been the owners and the tenants of the buildings and the businesses there now, as well as the residents who live nearby. We haven’t solved the problem of truck pollution between the dock and the rail yard. We have to show we can do this; then we can get the support. Too often, in the rush to speed things up, we don’t fully hammer out issues like this.

Do you favor privatizing the operations of the Los Angeles Zoo?

Not before we actually give the folks who are there now the tools to do the entrepreneurial stuff they want to do today. Like put Wi-Fi in, or market the zoo. I favor giving the city employees some of these tools and then giving them a year or two and see how it works. If they still operate at huge losses or can’t get the number of visitors up, then we consider the private sector.

During the last 20 years, L.A. city has seen the number of payroll jobs decrease even though the population has increased. Why do you think this has happened?

I believe it’s the gross receipts tax, first and foremost. Anybody who wants to incorporate opens up in Beverly Hills or Calabasas. But beyond the tax, there’s an attitude problem at City Hall. Payroll jobs have left because City Hall has the attitude, “Well, this is only a half-penny on the dollar.” And what about opening a restaurant? Do we really want to force someone trying to open a restaurant to hire a lobbyist to get through City Hall? That’s why we lose business and that’s one reason why I want all department managers to reapply for their jobs if I become mayor.

What do you see as the importance of the private sector?

The private sector is everything. Everything that I’ve done in my time in public office has come from the economic vitality of my district. It’s a virtuous circle, where the private sector can do well – as long as government sets the conditions so that the private sector can do well – then there’s more revenues that can be used to hire more cops and pave more streets and make the city even better. Both sides of my family were business owners: One grandfather was a barber and my other grandfather was a tailor for a company that became one of the best-known clothiers in America. I grew up working at both the barbershop and the clothing store. The private sector is absolutely critical to our success. It’s why I’m running for mayor.