Tax incentives like those proposed by the Obama administration for its Promise Zones initiative may be unlikely to be enacted outside a broad effort at tax reform.
According to a story in Roll Call:
Both parties have, in the past, supported using tax incentives to attract businesses to impoverished communities, with programs — variously called “enterprise zones,” “promise zones,” “empowerment zones” or “economic freedom zones” — that include tax breaks for expensing, financing and wage costs.
Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., have introduced a bill (S 591) to make permanent the New Markets Tax Credit, which directs private capital to low-income communities through a 39 percent tax credit for investors.
But according to Roll Call, such proposals “don’t carry much weight with Ways and Means Chairman Paul D. Ryan.” While the Roll Call article does not quote the congressman on Promise Zones specifically, it suggests he would support such tax incentives “only in the context of tax reform.”
Related
- Promise Zones: Round Two (September 20, 2014)