New Markets Tax Credit Eligibility Data Updated

At 3:11 pm EDT yesterday, the CDFI Fund announced the release of the 2013/2014 NMTC Application.

At 7:43 pm, PolicyMap was updated to reflect the new data.

This is a little less impressive once you know that there are no actual data updates to the NMTC eligibility data. They are based on the 2006-2010 ACS, just as they were last year. But PolicyMap accurately reflects the year change in the labels on the map. And there are other important NMTC-related indicators that have been updated.

One important thing to know, is the new application combines the 2013 and 2014 rounds of applications, “in order to achieve cost and efficiency savings to the government” (go sequestration!). So all our labeling for eligibility reflects these two years.

Along with the basic eligibility, all the Severe Distress Primary Criteria are unchanged and up to date.

The Severe Distress Secondary Criteria, however, are all being updated to stay current.

Some Secondary Criteria, which help an application in the competition process, have already been updated. These indicators include “Heavy Distress”, HUBZones, Appalachian Regional Commission Distressed Areas, and tracts with Brownfields. Also updated is the ERS/USDA Food Desert indicator, which was changed from an older 2006 USDA study to a new 2010 study (and is therefore labeled as “Low Income, Low Access” in parentheses, as that’s the new USDA terminology).

Not yet updated are Delta Regional Authority Distressed Counties (still at 2012, but 2013 is coming soon), and Medically Underserved Areas. We’ve found some inconsistencies in the government’s MUA data, and are waiting for an update from them to correct these issues. For the time being, the MUA data we have up is somewhat accurate as of 2012. We don’t have a time frame for this update, as we’re dependent on the data source, but we’re told it will be coming soon.

Also of note, all the old NMTC eligibility data (based on the 2000 Census) have been removed from PolicyMap, as they are no longer relevant. This results in a much simpler interface.

All this data is on PolicyMap in the “Federal Guidelines” menu, in the “CDFI Fund New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) Data” section.

Have any lingering questions? Contact our NMTC experts at info@policymap.com.