NEW YORK, NY - With an $85-million New Markets Tax Credits award announced last week by the U.S. Treasury Department, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) will be able to drive more vital private-sector capital into distressed commercial corridors. LISC has the nation's largest allocation of New Markets Tax Credits. In just over a decade, the national nonprofit has used $630 million of that allocation to support projects that have created more than 17,000 jobs in communities across the country.
"Those new jobs are crucial to communities suffering from high unemployment and poverty rates that climb well above the national average," said Kevin Boes, president of New Markets Support Company (NMSC), a LISC affiliate that manages New Markets activity. "These investments help restore the economic infrastructure of disinvested neighborhoods," he added.
LISC uses New Markets Tax Credits to support retail developments, community health centers, public charter schools, arts and entertainment facilities, industrial and office space, child care centers, athletic fields and other facilities in low-income communities.
"The New Markets program is important both for what it does to fund individual projects and for how it connects private investors to the future of communities in which they might not otherwise see promise," Boes said. "It gives financial institutions and other corporations a major stake in the recovery of low-income neighborhoods."
In addition, New Markets investments have proven to be an efficient use of taxpayer incentives, he said: "Every dollar of New Markets allocation typically leverages another $8 in private development capital. It's tough to beat that or ignore how important it is to the economic recovery of neighborhoods."
The New Markets Tax Credit program was created in 2000 and is managed by the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund), which is part of the Treasury Department. The program has allocated $33 billion in tax credits to help more than 3,000 businesses develop and expand facilities in high-poverty areas. The credit has helped create more than 500,000 jobs.
LISC combines corporate, government and philanthropic resources to help nonprofit community development corporations revitalize distressed neighborhoods. Since 1980, LISC has raised $12 billion to build or rehab 289,000 affordable homes and develop 46 million square feet of retail, community and educational space nationwide. LISC support has leveraged nearly $40 billion in total development activity.