How a Trump Tax Break to Help Poor Communities Became a Windfall for the Rich

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

THE BONANZA

How a Trump Tax Break to Help Poor Communities Became a Windfall for the Rich

By Jesse Drucker and Eric Lipton
Aug. 31, 2019

NEW ORLEANS — President Trump has portrayed America’s cities as wastelands, ravaged by crime and homelessness, infested by rats.

But the Trump administration’s signature plan to lift them — a multibillion-dollar tax break that is supposed to help low-income areas — has fueled a wave of developments financed by and built for the wealthiest Americans.

Among the early beneficiaries of the tax incentive are billionaire financiers like Leon Cooperman and business magnates like Sidney Kohl — and Mr. Trump’s family members and advisers.

Former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey; Richard LeFrak, a New York real estate titan who is close to the president; Anthony Scaramucci, a former White House aide who recently had a falling out with Mr. Trump; and the family of Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, all are looking to profit from what is shaping up to be a once-in-a-generation bonanza for elite investors.

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But leaders of groups that work in cities and rural areas to combat poverty say they are disappointed with how it is playing out so far.

“Capital is going to flow to the lowest-risk, highest-return environment,” said Aaron T. Seybert, the social investment officer at the Kresge Foundation, a community-development group in Troy, Mich., that supported the opportunity-zone effort.

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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/31/business/tax-opportunity-zones.html

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Mission accomplished.

Sweetheart deals for real estate developers are some of the easiest to recognize -- but also the easiest to slip through Congress. Maybe because some in Congress have investments in real estate, and don't want to do anything to handicap the industry ...