Quote America is about getting ahead, about finding the best in ourselves and in each other.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP DRIVES THE AMERICAN ECONOMY: President Donald J. Trump knows that entrepreneurship is the economic backbone of communities across America.

Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over half a million new small businesses are launched each year in the United States, representing nearly 1.4 million new jobs each year. The nearly 30 million small businesses in the United States employ over 57 million American workers, while driving nearly half the of our national GDP.

Under the Trump Administration, small business owners are demonstrating the highest levels of optimism in over a decade according to Wells Fargo.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is benefitting new and prospective small business owners across the board, lessening the tax burden on both business owners and employees alike. Before the repeal of the death tax, nearly 20 percent of family business owners reported that planning for the tax’s impacts affected their ability to create jobs. Sole proprietorships, S corporations, and partnerships have all experienced decreases in their top marginal tax rates, benefitting millions of small business owners. For the next five years, American businesses can write off the costs of newly purchased heavy equipment and other investments in their business.

Despite the importance of entrepreneurship, the United States economy experienced a net decline in the total number of American firms between 2007 and 2014. The Great Recession had a severely negative impact on new business formation, with the startup rate falling beneath the closure rate in 2009—the first time on record. Many distressed communities have been economically hamstrung by business closures, a lack of access to capital, and poor support for entrepreneurship. Stagnating and decreasing new business creation in low-income areas often compounds negative consequences for labor force development and wage growth. The Opportunity Zones Program focuses on distressed, low-income census tracks for targeted economic investments.



A NEW PATH TO REVITALIZATION: Opportunity Zones represent a systematic approach to economic development in underserved communities.

The bipartisan Opportunity Zones Program was officially enacted as part of President Trump’s comprehensive tax reform plan via the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Opportunity Zones are census tracks designated as eligible to receive private investments through Opportunity Funds. Opportunity Funds are Treasury-certified private investment vehicles that aggregate and deploy private capital into Opportunity Zones. Opportunity Zones exist to fund new and small businesses, develop blighted properties, invest in key local infrastructure projects, finance facility construction or refurbishment, and a number of other activities intended to revitalize and enhance local economic ecosystems.

Based on the 2011-2015 American Community Survey, over 41,000 census tracts are eligible for designation as Qualified Opportunity Zones.

Over 52 million low-income Americans reside in distressed communities that may benefit from the investment brought by Opportunity Zones.

BRINGING PUBLIC POLICY AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISE TOGETHER: The Opportunity Zones program utilizes sensible policymaking to incentivize private sector investment into our communities.