[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 142 (Tuesday, September 9, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S8165]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         NEW MARKETS TAX CREDIT

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, today I would like to speak about the new 
markets tax credit, NMTC--a vital development financing tool for low-
income communities that is set to expire at end of this year unless 
Congress takes action.
  The NMTC was signed into law 8 years ago in order to attract private 
investment to economically distressed communities by offering a modest 
Federal tax credit as an incentive for investors. Since its inception, 
this program has proven remarkably effective.
  According to the Treasury Department, as of the first of July, the 
NMTC has been responsible for $11 billion of new investment in 
economically distressed communities across the country, including $600 
million for community development entities based in Massachusetts. A 
January 2007 General Accountability Office report indicates that 88 
percent of NMTC investors would not have made a particular investment 
in a low income community without the credit, and 69 percent had never 
made such an investment prior to working with the NMTC.
  The NMTC program has successfully generated private investment in 
low-income communities. Community development entities, CDEs, that 
administer the program funds are frequently involved with communities 
with poverty rates higher than 30 percent and unemployment rates 
significantly greater than the national average. This program, by 
merging public and private investments, is infusing these communities 
with the resources to begin new businesses, create new jobs, build new 
homes, and jumpstart their economies.
  In Massachusetts, six community development entities have been 
awarded credit allocations. One such entity in Massachusetts, the 
Rockland Trust Company, is a commercial bank that has been serving Cape 
Cod, southeastern Massachusetts, and Rhode Island for over 100 years. 
In an effort to serve areas with high employment and low income, 
Rockland Trust applied for an NMTC allocation to expand its capacity to 
offer financing products that could effectively serve these 
communities. Since 2004, the Rockland Trust has received $75 million in 
credits, which have been used to finance 70 different non-real estate 
and real estate business loans ranging in size from $50,000 to $8 
million. The NMTC loans made by Rockland Trust have been instrumental 
in financing the acquisition and redevelopment of over 2.1 million 
square feet of real estate and thus far have contributed to the 
creation of over 1,200 jobs.
  The Massachusetts Housing Investments Corporation, MHIC, based in 
Boston, is another entity putting the tax credit to work in 
Massachusetts. MHIC has used the credit to finance a range of 
commercial and industrial real estate projects, large and small, that 
would not have been possible without the financing brought in by the 
credit. One such project, the Holyoke Health Center, HHC, is a 
federally qualified health center located in a community of 40,000 with 
a poverty rate of 27 percent and the highest per capita mortality rate 
and rate of teen births in the United States. After many unsuccessful 
attempts to obtain financing for its expansion, the Holyoke Health 
Center approached MHIC and within months the project was approved, 
achieved closing, and began construction. MHIC helped finance the 
largest investment ever made in Holyoke, and created a financing 
structure that has become a national model for other community health 
care expansion projects nationwide. The new state-of-the-art Holyoke 
facility houses primary care and laboratory services, an on-site 
pharmacy, a dental clinic, counseling services, a day care facility 
accommodating 100 preschool children. The project created 210 
construction related jobs as well as 239 permanent jobs principally for 
Holyoke residents.
  I am a strong supporter of NMTC because I have seen it work in 
Massachusetts and I believe in its potential to revitalize communities 
and businesses that are too often left out of the mainstream market. I 
encourage my colleagues to join me in strong support of the extension 
of the NMTC.

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