States across the country are starting to gather data and use evidence to systematically evaluate tax incentives. To illustrate what sort of evaluations states are conducting, NCSL created a database of state tax incentive evaluations. Evaluations...

Tulsa Remote, one of the nation’s first and largest remote worker relocation initiatives, has brought more than 1,200 remote workers to the city since 2018 by offering a $10,000 grant and additional support services to eligible workers who move to...

Many economic development organizations (EDOs) have embraced the mission to support entrepreneurial firms in their communities. EDOs engage in their entrepreneurial ecosystems, in part, by providing resources, sometimes in the form of business...

Albuquerque Economic Development has embraced the critical need for developing a strategy not only to drive recovery in the region, but to ensure that it does not again find itself left behind as it was following the Great Recession. The 2021...

The Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness and Smart Incentives have produced a series of reports for the State Economic Development Executives network over the past year providing guidance on critical issues and trade-offs to help state...

CALED knows from its work supporting economic development throughout California that infrastructure financing is a challenge for many rural communities. CALED collaborated with CDFA to develop this guidebook to meet the need for a resource to help...

In evaluating incentives, everything depends on the details: how much in incentives it takes to truly cause a firm to locate or expand, the multiplier effects, the effects of jobs on employment rates, how jobs affect tax revenue versus public...

This study was published by the Lincoln Institute. The authors examine how to make property-tax incentives for business more effective. They find that governments should not approve every incentive request, target use of incentives, avoid incentive...

Every year local and state governments in the United States expend tens of billions of dollars on economic development incentives. Under intense pressure to deliver economic opportunity, policymakers utilize incentives to encourage private sector...

Building on earlier research by The Pew Charitable Trusts, this report identifies best practices for effectively evaluating tax incentives. Specifically, Pew recommends that states take three steps: make a plan, measure the impact, and inform policy...

This audit, produced by Minnesota State Auditor Rebecca Otto, details the impacts of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) in the State of Minnesota during the 2017 calendar year.

The D.C. Chief Financial Officer's Office is required to review all D.C. tax expenditures (such as abatements, credits, and exemptions) on a five-year cycle. For the FY2017 report fulfilling the requirement, the Office of Revenue Analysis (ORA)...

This report, produced for the Alabama Department of Revenue, analyzes how states use a range of tax and non-tax incentives, both of which have proliferated in the high-stakes bidding war over increasingly-mobile jobs and capital investment.

This paper, produced by the Upjohn Institute, analyzes the intensified use of incentives as local governments compete for new plants and corporate relocations, and as private firms increasingly demand a deal. While incentives promise jobs and tax...

Ellen Harpel from Smart Incentives provides supplementary information for attendees.

Ellen Harpel from Smart Incentives & Business Development Advisors presents on leveraging tax incentive use in development projects.

This white paper, prepared for Smart Incentives, provides a Descriptive Analysis of U.S. States’ Manufacturing Investment Promotion Programs. It catalogs the varied incentive tools and rationales of individual states toward attracting and...

This issue of Land Lines from the Lincoln Institute looks at strategies for revitalizing America’s smaller legacy cities, GASB 77 and the cost of property tax incentives for business, the future of U.S. public school revenue from the property tax,...

Tax incentives are one of the primary tools that states use to try to create jobs, attract new businesses, and strengthen their economies. Incentives are also major budget commitments, collectively costing states billions of dollars a year. Given...

This report by the Urban Institute provides a discussion framework for sustainable economic growth strategies that states can use. The authors posit that state investment in economic development falls into three categories: investment in the...

Incentives provide targeted new or expanding businesses with special tax credits or other special financial benefits or services. Two examples of business incentives are property tax abatements and job creation tax credits (JCTCs). This report will...

This BLS & Co. 2016 resource guide is intended to provide a detailed summary of the primary and most valuable state and local economic development incentives offered throughout the U.S to help companies evaluate whether incentives can play a...

Incentive zoning is a planning tool that local governments use to entice developers to provide a public good by offering incentives. The incentives seek to offset the cost to developers of the public goods. In this issue brief the authors describe...

This study, authored by Jerry Zhao and Kerstin Larson, evaluates the applicability of special assessments in funding public transits on the basis of four criteria: efficiency, equity, sustainability, and feasibility. The authors discuss suitable...

Researchers Jerry Zhao, Kirti Das, and Kerstin Larson evaluate the applicability of TIF as a revenue strategy based on four criteria: efficiency, equity, revenue sustainability, and feasibility. The paper also provides recommendations on how to...