WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 4, 2023) – Today, the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) Coalition, a national membership organization of Community Development Entities (CDEs) and investors organized to advocate on behalf of the NMTC, released a letter signed by nearly 700 community development stakeholders to President Biden and Members of Congress in support of enactment of a permanent extension to the NMTC in end of the year tax legislation. Despite its efficacy and importance for businesses and community development projects, the NMTC program expires in 2025.
Signatories on the letter include 275 community development organizations;76 housing organizations; 140 nonprofits, shelters, schools, healthcare facilities, and community service providers; 166 businesses and community development-focused investors; and 31 state and national community development trade associations.
“We strongly support making the NMTC permanent,” said Aisha Benson, President of the NMTC Coalition and President and CEO of Nonprofit Finance Fund. “We’ve seen the enormous impact NMTCs can have in strengthening communities across the country, as well as in our own work in Arkansas and Ohio. We are committed to ensuring no community is left behind and preserving one of the federal government’s most successful community development programs.”
During this Congress, both the Senate and House introduced bills (S. 234 and H.R. 2539) with bipartisan support to make the NMTC extension permanent. Establishing permanence will provide certainty in delivering resources to low-income and marginalized communities, creating jobs, increasing economic opportunity, and improving lives at a time when underserved communities face significant challenges.
Throughout its 20-year history, the NMTC has delivered more than $125 billion to rural and urban communities outside the economic mainstream, which has led to financing to more than 8,000 businesses and projects and over one million jobs.
Establishing the NMTC as a permanent part of the tax code will provide certainty and further promote the in getting patient, flexible capital to low-income and marginalized communities, creating jobs, increasing economic opportunity, and improving lives at a time when the economic frailty of our underserved communities has never been more apparent.
Established in 2000 in the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act (P.L.106-554), the New Markets Tax Credit is a bipartisan effort to stimulate investment and economic growth in low-income urban neighborhoods and rural communities.
“With the continuing impacts from COVID-19, and the general economic uncertainty felt across the country, the New Markets Tax Credit is absolutely vital for many of America’s urban neighborhoods and rural communities and will provide billions of dollars for high-impact, community revitalization projects,” said Bob Rapoza, spokesperson for the NMTC Coalition. “Over the years, the credit has been instrumental in financing plant and equipment for small manufacturing businesses and patient, flexible capital to other small businesses, hospitals, healthcare centers, homeless shelters and other transformative projects that improve communities, create jobs and economic opportunity. A permanent extension of NMTC will provide more certainty to private sector investors, which will result in better pricing and more subsidy to hard-to-finance, essential projects.”
For examples of how the NMTC is making an impact in each state, see the NMTC Coalition’s website, where you can find over 2,500 NMTC success stories organized by state and congressional district.
About New Markets Tax Credit Program
The New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) was enacted in 2000 in an effort to stimulate private investment and economic growth in low-income urban neighborhoods and rural communities that lack access to the patient capital needed to support and grow businesses, create jobs, and sustain healthy local economies. Since its inception, the NMTC has generated more than one million jobs. Today, due to the NMTC, nearly $125 billion is hard at work in underserved communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. For more information, visit www.NMTCCoalition.org.
