Reuters
[Photo Credit: Reuters]
President Donald Trump’s mass firings of federal workers during the second-longest government shutdown in U.S. history could hamper implementation of two tax incentives made permanent in his massive tax-cut and spending bill meant to boost investment in low-income communities.
The administration said in a court filing that more than 1,400 Treasury Department employees were fired. Those firings were put on a temporary hold by a federal judge, but according to two people briefed on the plan, they target about 95 staff members of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which spearheads economic development programs within the department.
The fund’s staff works on two tax provisions made permanent by Republican legislation this year, administering the New Markets Tax Credits and helping the Internal Revenue Service establish the Opportunity Zones program.
For the last 25 years, the new market credits encouraged private investments into manufacturing, offices and retail locations in economically distressed areas with low median incomes and high rates of unemployment. Within the last seven years, governors encouraged more than 8,700 opportunity zones in every state to attract business and housing developments.
Without the CDFI fund staffers, money appropriated by Congress for the programs could be left unutilized, which would delay investments throughout the country, said Pravina Raghavan, the most recent head of the fund who stepped down in July.
The White House and Treasury Department did not respond to requests for comment.
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