URBAN, RURAL AREAS ALIKE TO BENEFIT FROM
SPECIAL TAX TREATMENT
In January I had the pleasure of delivering some good news to the community of El Paso. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has designated that city one of 15 new empowerment zones across the country.
This designation means that an area of central El Paso, comprised of commercial and residential neighborhoods in the city's center along the Mexican border, will be eligible for a broad range of federal tax incentives to stimulate job creation and economic development. This section of El Paso is one of the most impoverished urban areas in the United States. Its 51,000 residents have gotten hold of the short end of the economic stick. Earlier efforts to help, through mass infusions of government money and programs, have barely made a dent.
A new approach was called for -- and is being tried. Through the empowerment zone program, El Paso will be able to combine tax incentives and workforce development programs to restore and revitalize the area. Once fully implemented, community leaders believe the city's heart -- el corazon de El Paso -- will be better able to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.
New rural empowerment zones in the Rio Grande Valley have been designated, as well, in Duval and Jim Wells counties near the Mexican border.
These designations will provide similar tax incentives,
but ones that have been tailored to meet the special needs of economically distressed rural areas.
I believe that providing communities with incentives for those who build, rebuild, invest and create jobs is the most effective way government can be of service to the people who live there. Helping people who help themselves, rather than creating an additional layer of government bureaucracy, is the way to go.
So I am introducing legislation that would enlarge and strengthen these kinds of programs. My bill is designed to reinvigorate our most distressed urban and rural communities -- from the inside, out, and from the bottom, up. It would create a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for physical improvement projects in these areas, rehabilitating buildings and at the same time revitalizing economies.
This would generate an estimated $7 billion of new economic activity in some of our most struggling areas. Communities across Texas stand to benefit, among them Dallas, Houston, Waco, El Paso and parts of the Rio Grande Valley.
Hand outs are not the answer to ailing economies. Experience has shown that private-sector investment and renovation is the way to realize more jobs and open up opportunities. Carefully crafted tax credits can and do help cities, towns and rural areas to rebuild themselves and rejoin the mainstream American economy.
February 22, 1999