Federal tax credits available for groups serving low-income and rural communities
Twin Cities businesses and nonprofits are eligible for $60 million in new federal tax credits.
The New Markets Tax Credits are designed to draw investments into low-income and rural communities.
At a news conference in St. Paul on Saturday, David Reiling, CEO and President of Sunrise Banks, said he's proud his organization is charged with distributing the tax credits in the Twin Cities.
"This program is very competitive, so to apply into the next round and the future rounds, this money's got to move," said Reiling. "We usually get these tax credits out in about a year to 18 months, and so we do look for projects that are relatively shovel-ready and are far in their thought process in terms of being developed."
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Reiling said qualified businesses must serve low-to-moderate income people or be located in an area with high rates of unemployment or poverty
"What will happen is we'll see job creation, because these tax credits will help businesses and other community activities get off the ground," said U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn. "We're going to see investment in communities that might be non-profit investment in some cases. It is going to just add to the economic vitality of these communities that as I said before have traditionally been under-invested in."
Smith is cosponsor of a bill to make the tax credits permanent.
Past recipients include Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity and the new Midway YMCA.