States have until March 21st to designate 25 percent of their qualified census tracts as Opportunity Zones. CDFA has been working with states and advising them on best practices for Zone designation, and recently convened a meeting with state leaders to discuss the Opportunity Zone initiative as a whole. For regular updates on the Opportunity Zone initiative, visit the CDFA Opportunity Zone Resource page.

In this article, Charles Kolling details the ways state and local governments can influence Congressional action on infrastructure spending.

Ten governors and 14 mayors have sent separate letters to Congress supporting legislation that would authorize $5 billion of private activity bonds for government-owned buildings. CDFA is a part of the advocacy efforts surrounding the Public Buildings Renewal Act.

Reps. Randy Hultgren and Dutch Ruppersberger introduced legislation to restore the tax exemption for advance refunding bonds. This financing tool allows states and local governments to take advantage of favorable interest rates to build essential infrastructure projects.

President Trump's fiscal 2019 budget proposals to reduce funds for water infrastructure programs seem to run counter to his infrastructure plan and have left water, environmental, and state and local government groups disappointed.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage has less than three weeks to make his Opportunity Zone designations. Maine can designate up to 25 percent of its low-income Census tracts – areas between 2,500 and 8,000 residents – as opportunity zones, which works out to 31 tracts statewide.

The New Mexico Economic Development Department (NMEDD) announced that the Department is soliciting applications for Opportunity Zone designations from each County through March 21. There are 249 eligible qualified census tracts in New Mexico, of which 63 may be designated Opportunity Zones.

The Qualified Opportunity Zone program allows Gov. Gina Raimondo's administration to name census tracts within the state where investments would receive a federal tax break.  87 of Rhode Island's 244 census tracts qualify as low income.

Gov. Jerry Brown released a list and map of 798 census tracts across California that he says should be considered as Opportunity Zones. Nine locations encompassing 11 tracts are in San Francisco.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) today issued Revenue Procedure 2018-18, which includes updated low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) and private activity bond (PAB) state cap numbers based on a chained consumer-price index introduced by tax legislation that passed in December. 

Unlike prior federal infrastructure development strategies, which rarely discussed the need for maritime infrastructure investment, the proposal places maritime infrastructure on equal footing with other surface transportation modes in terms of potential funding opportunities.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will publish in Tuesday's Federal Register a notice revising fiscal year (FY) 2018 fair market rents for eight areas based on new survey data.