Agenda

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ARF- 5989

2. A.

Work Session

Meeting Date:	03/31/2020
Submitted For:	Woody Cline	Submitted By:	Cathy Melvin, Executive Assistant
Department:	Board of Supervisors-District 3

Information

Request/Subject

Discussion and overview of Opportunity Zones and how they can benefit communities and economic development efforts.

Background Information

Opportunity Zones is a community development program established by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to encourage long-term investments in low-income urban and rural communities nationwide. The chief executives of each state and territory had 90 to 120 days from December 22, 2017 to designate up to 25 percent of the total number of low-income census tracts in a state as Opportunity Zones. The Opportunity Zone program comes under the direction of the Department of Treasury.

Supervisor Cline became aware of this program on February 20, 2018 while attending a small town mayor's meeting in Hayden, AZ. The deadline for submission of census tracts was Friday, February 23, 2018. The Treasury Department released a list of Opportunity Zone-eligible contiguous tracts and a map with those tracts which was made available to the counties. County staff reviewed the maps to determine the most beneficial tracts regarding the potential for development. After discussing the list of eligible tracts with the managers from Miami and Globe and county staff, 3 tracts were submitted to the Arizona Commerce Authority for submission to the Governor's Office.

Evaluation

It would be beneficial for the Board of Supervisors to receive information regarding Opportunity Zones and the potential for long-term investments in our communities. Providing information to the Board of Supervisors will be Keith Watkins with the Arizona Commerce Authority and Jimmy Morales with OZ Task Force.

Conclusion

N/A

Recommendation

N/A

Suggested Motion

Information/Discussion regarding Opportunity Zones and their potential for economic benefit for our local communities. (Woody Cline)

Attachments
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