Passed as a part of the $1.5 trillion 2017 tax law, the Opportunity Zones (OZ) program is promoted as an innovative poverty alleviation initiative created with the purpose of using certain tax breaks to attract private investment into chronically under-resourced, high-poverty communities to help revitalize their local economy via job creation, development, and growth. The Center for American Progress believes that the program lacks the necessary framework to ensure equitable economic development for both OZ community residents and investors, and that the best way to do so is to develop the existing assets in these communities, namely the people who live there.
Please join us for an off-the-record briefing to learn about each other’s OZ endeavors and identify tangible pathways to achieve the initiative’s promised intent of delivering positive benefits to both longtime residents and OZ investors.