Opportunity Zones Get Big Push as Critics Question Who They Help

Contentious economic development incentives lawmakers and the White House are pitching as an answer to the nation’s economic and social ills are structurally unable to help fix those problems—and may even exacerbate them—critics say.

Opportunity zones, originally a bipartisan proposal from Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), are meant to lift struggling neighborhoods out of poverty by luring investors with tax breaks. President Donald Trump has repeatedly touted the tax incentives as one of his administration’s major wins since they were enacted in the 2017 tax code overhaul.

“I got criminal justice done, I got opportunity zones,” Trump ...