Delta Grassroots Caucus Events

Credit Michael Hibblen/ KUAR News, Arkansas Public Radio; Former President Bill Clinton speaking to the Delta Grassroots Caucus on May 2, 2013, at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, Little Rock

U. S. Senator John Boozman, Arkansas, at a Delta Grassroots Caucus meeting at the US Capitol

Brad Cole, Executive Director of the Municipal League of Illinois; previously a senior aide to former Republican US Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, earlier Mayor of Carbondale, Illinois, veteran Delta regional advocate, speaking at the Delta regional conference in West Memphis, Arkansas on April 26, 2019.

President Bill Clinton makes a comment to Delta Caucus Director Lee Powell at a meeting in Blytheville, Arkansas (in the northeast Arkansas Delta) on Nov. 2, 2014

The Delta Caucus would like to pay tribute to the late, great U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, a powerful force in the US Senate for decades and a champion for the Delta. Sen. Cochran passed away on May 30, 2019. He spoke to the Delta Caucus on many occasions over the years (he is pictured above speaking to a Caucus event on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC) and his thoughtful, courteous and bipartisan leadership will be sorely missed.

Marcie Lawson, Executive Director, Sikeston, Missouri Regional Chamber and Area Economic Development Corporation, speaking at the Delta regional conference in West Memphis, Arkansas on April 26, 2019.

Alan Gumbel, Greater Memphis Alliance for a Competitive Workforce, Memphis, Tennessee, speaking at the Delta regional conference in West Memphis, Arkansas on April 26, 2019.

Mayor Shirley Washington of Pine Bluff, AR, speaking to the Delta Caucus at the Arkansas Capitol Rotunda in 2017.

Please support the New Markets Tax Credit legislation

Posted on June 15, 2008 at 12:33 PM

At the June 3-5 Delta Initiative in Washington, DC, we heard several presentations supporting the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC), and we would encourage our partners to contact Members of Congress and tell them about the pressing need to extend NMTC through 2009. Bill Bynum, CEO of Enterprise Corporation of the Delta and Hope Community Credit Union gave an excellent presentation on the beneficial impact of NMTC at our opening session in DC on June 3.

Clifton Avant of the Entergy Corp. is a key leader of the Delta Caucus and he is a strong supporter of the NMTC. This legislation has strong support from Republicans, Democrats and Independents, and we expect to eventually get a positive result in Congress’ action, but we wanted to remind everybody to keep pushing for it.

Below in this email we include the latest news bulletin of the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition, which was passed along to us by Clifton Avant. Note the following quote: “For supporters of the New Markets Tax Credit, please encourage your investors, businesses that you have helped finance, and state and local elected officials you have worked with to also contact Senators and Representatives with a message of urgency to extend NMTC. It is important for Senators and Representatives to know that unless Congress acts to extend the program, the NMTC will come to an end this Fall.”

Please do all you can to support the NMTC, which has great potential for promoting economic development in the Delta. Lee Riley Powell, MDGC

NEW MARKETS TAX CREDIT BULLETIN

Volume 6, Number 51 June 12, 2008

Tax Extender Legislation Stalled in Senate

Earlier this week the Senate attempted to take up major tax legislation that includes extension of the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) through 2009, but the measure failed. Senate Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Chairman of the Finance Committee Max Baucus (D-MT) moved for the full Senate to consider the recently-passed House tax extender package (H.R. 6049) and offer a substitute amendment making minor adjustments to the House bill, but the Senate could not muster the 60 votes necessary to proceed. The motion failed 50-46. As reported previously H.R. 6049 included extensions of a number of federal tax credits including New Markets through 2009.

There remains widespread Congressional support for passing a tax extender bill, but the timeline for renewed Senate action is uncertain, and it is not clear if the package will move as a free-standing bill or be paired with another piece of legislation in the weeks and months ahead. Although extension of expired and expiring tax credits might not pass through Congress until December, there is no doubt that tax extender legislation including NMTC will be passed. (Ed-my italics)

The controversy remains whether tax extenders should be paid for and if so, what revenue offsets should be used. The House identified the following revenue raisers to offset the cost of H.R. 6049: immediate tax on deferred compensation paid by certain foreign entities, delayed implementation of worldwide allocation of interest expense until 2019, and modified timing for corporate estimated tax payment. Following House passage of the tax extender bill the White House issued a veto threat of the measure. The White House Statement of Administration Policy makes explicit that it supports extension of NMTC for an additional year, but it does not approve of the revenue offsets that would be used to comply with pay/go rules and offset the $55.5 billion expenditure.

While the Democratic leadership remains committed to PAYGO rules that require offsetting any and all tax expenditures, all but eight Republican Senators sent a letter to Senator Baucus last month stating they would oppose a tax bill that was offset with revenue raisers. So, while there is strong Congressional support for extenders, the issue of offsets is what made it difficult to round-up the 60 votes necessary in the Senate to proceed.

We urge all members of the NMTC Coalition to contact Members of Congress and tell them about the pressing need to extend NMTC through 2009. Please encourage your investors, businesses that you have helped finance, and state and local elected officials you have worked with to also contact Senators and Representatives with a message of urgency to extend NMTC. It is important for Senators and Representatives to know that unless Congress acts to extend the program, the NMTC will come to an end this Fall.

Congress will be in recess from June 28 through July 6, and then take an extended recess August 9 through September 7. Now is a good time to invite your Member of Congress to visit one or a few projects that you have financed with the Credit while they are back in their home districts.

The CDFI Fund is presently reviewing applications for the sixth round of allocations and unless the Credit is extended this will be the final round of allocations. Prompt extension of NMTC is necessary for the CDFI Fund to stay on course to release their application for 2009, and it is also critical to extend the New Markets Tax Credit in a timely fashion to maintain investor confidence in the program.

The New Markets Tax Credit Coalition released its 2008 Progress Report this week–see their website at www.newmarketstaxcreditcoalition.org. The report is the Coalition’s fourth annual report on the implementation of the NMTC and is designed to provide policymakers and practitioners with an update on the Credit and its impact on low income communities across the country.

The report illustrates that Community Development Entities (CDEs) continue to raise investments and deploy capital at a faster pace than required by law. CDEs are also targeting poorer communities than required by law or regulations. The survey also revealed an increase in CDE investments in other CDEs in the form of debt and equity.

Here are some new findings in the 2008 Progress Report:

–87% of CDEs reported additional leveraging at the project level On average, CDEs are financing 40% of a project’s total cost using NMTC financing (CDEs are leveraging the remaining 60% from other public and private sources) –$6.3 billion in NMTC financing has leveraged an additional $15 billion in financing for Qualified Low-Income Community Businesses (QALICBs)