Political Quotes

“Mr. President, as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, I have worked to secure tax policies to help spur entrepreneurship, competition, and innovation. Opportunity zones are a perfect example of the type of tax policy that creates that kind of growth in our economy. Opportunity zones were created under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed by the President in December 2017. That bill stimulates economic development and job creation across the country by incentivizing long- term investments in economically distressed neighborhoods. Last year, more than 8,700 census tracts were identified as opportunity zones by the Governors of each of the 50 States. These zones are home to approximately 31 million Americans, or roughly 10 percent of the population. Even in just this short period, we are already seeing wage increases within these economically distressed areas after their having been designated as opportunity zones. For example, during the second and third quarters of last year, our counties with a large presence of opportunity zones experienced an annualized wage growth of 8 percent. That is compared to other economically distressed counties that were not designated as zones, which did not see a significant spike in wages. We are also seeing States across the country showing an interest in opportunity zones, with at least 17 State legislators considering their own opportunity zone measures at the State level.…”