NDC spurred $5.9 billion in investment in twenty-seven states and Puerto Rico through NMTC deployment, creating nearly 30,000 jobs
New York, N.Y. (January 10, 2019) — Today, the National Development Council released a report highlighting community revitalization projects the organization has financed utilizing the federal New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Program. The NMTC is an innovative and flexible financing tool designed to assist in the development of mixed-used, healthcare, community facilities and industrial projects in the nation’s most distressed communities.
“As the U.S. economy continues to bifurcate into areas of opportunity and areas of stagnation and decline, more effort must be made and resources committed to stem the tide of deteriorating opportunity. We believe that one significant step toward reversing this trend would be to make the New Markets Tax Credit program permanent,” said Daniel Marsh, president of NDC and an NMTC Coalition Board member.
The NMTC was authorized in the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000 (PL 106-554) as part of a bi-partisan effort to stimulate investment and economic growth in low-income urban neighborhoods and rural communities by providing a modest tax incentive to private investors. During the past ten years, the NMTC has proven to be an effective, targeted and cost-efficient financing tool valued by businesses, communities and investors across the country.
Since 2003, NDC has provided financing for 88 businesses, community facilities, mixed-use, business incubators, health clinics, and other important community revitalization projects. NDC helps structure deals, provide tax credits to qualified projects and uses its relationships with CDE partners to bring additional allocation when the organization cannot.
Unfortunately, the authorization for this important federal program is set to expire on December 31, 2019. In the last Congress, a bipartisan group of 103 Representatives and 21 Senators cosponsored The New Markets Tax Credit Extension Act of 2017 (H.R. 1098/S. 384), which would expand and permanently extend the program. The House bill was led by Reps. Tom Reed (R-NY) and Richard Neal (D-MA), and Sens. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) led the bill in the Senate. NMTC practitioners, businesses, nonprofits and the low-income communities they serve are hopeful the credit will be extended before the December deadline this year.
“This report demonstrates the tangible impact the NMTC has in areas struggling from a lack of investment and access to capital. NDC has successfully deployed the NMTC to create more than 30,000 jobs, expand health care access to 631,000 patients, jumpstart manufacturing businesses, and assisted 90 nonprofit providers supporting the needs of families and children in some of the most distressed communities across the country,” said Marsh. “Moreover, the NMTC provides the federal government with a 15 percent return on its investment through increased economic activity. That by anyone’s definition is a win-win.”