Not a single Native Community Development Enterprise (NCDE) was selected for an award in the most recent round of New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) allocations (just announced by the CDFI Fund of the US Department of the Treasury) despite at least one Native-sponsored applicant and one non-Native applicant totally dedicated to Indian Country deployment. These two CDEs’ allocation requests were peer reviewed and ranked ‘highly qualified’ to be eligible for an allocation.

The NMTC program, which annually allocates about $3 Billion in Federal Tax credits that are sold to private investors for investing in low income communities’ economic development projects, has allocated over a $100 Billion in tax credit authority since the program’s inception in 2003. Indian Country NCDEs have only just started to receive a small portion of the annual allocations, in recent years. In total, Native CDEs have received about $250 Million in tax credit authority, or about 0.25% of total investment authority. While small in proportion to total NMTC allocation, this amount has made the NMTC program a significant source of Indian Country investment capital in only a few short years. Until this year, that is.