Senator Carper Highlights Economic and Housing Opportunities that Local Tax Incentives Can Provide to Communities in Need

Today at the Senate Finance Committee hearing “Tax Tools for Local Economic Development,” U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) discussed how tax incentives for local and state governments can generate economic opportunity for people living in low-income communities. During the hearing, Senator Carper emphasized the resilience and achievements of Delaware’s communities thanks to these tax incentives, and how major legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law can continue to help communities rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic and thrive.

Senator Carper highlighted how federal incentives and tax credits have helped revitalize communities throughout Delaware and converted shuttered buildings into economic hubs:

“As we know, the COVID-19 pandemic led to major shifts in commercial real estate, fewer people working in-person, [and] less foot traffic to retail storefronts. Meanwhile, our nationwide housing shortage continues to squeeze renters and prospective home buyers alike from Delaware all the way over to Oregon. Delaware is no stranger to adapting and evolving with the times. We’ve converted shuttered car assembly lines into state-of-the-art biopharmaceutical plants, [and] former brownfields like the Wilmington Riverfront are now thriving tourist destination[s].”

Additionally, Senator Carper stressed that local governments and developers can stack these incentives with incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to address the nationwide housing crisis:

“Economic development tax incentives, like the New Market Tax Credit and the Rehabilitation Tax Credit, have been critical to my state, and I know to other states, [in] jump-starting hundreds of millions of dollars in development across hundreds of projects. Now, thanks to our historic work last Congress, developers can pair these tools with additional grants and incentives enacted in the Inflation Reduction Act and in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. As our municipalities and communities use these tools for adaptive reuse, they can do so in a way that is greener [and] that connects people to modern infrastructure.”

A video of Senator Carper’s questions at today’s hearing can be found here.

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