Another Critical Look at Opportunity Zones

The Federal Opportunity Zone tax incentive program is considered by many to be the Trump Administration’s flagship economic development initiative.  It’s a big money program, with more than $108 billion now sitting in Opportunity Zone funds across the US.  The OZ program began in 2017, and was revised and updated in 2025.   

Despite more than five years of operations, the jury is still out on whether opportunity zones work.  In my view, the evidence supporting the OZ program’s effectiveness remains quite weak. And, it seems like I’m not alone as a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) assessment offers a sober and critical look at the OZ program and its effects.

GAO analysts assessed the state and local impacts of OZ programs, and found that few programs actually track job creation and other impacts from OZ investments.  Not surprisingly, surveyed state and local officials were typically “unsure” of any concrete impacts. Their survey responses noted that they hoped for impacts on poverty, jobs, and development, but that evidence in support of these impacts remained “anecdotal” at best. GAO offers a number of recommendations for improving the program, but it should be a concern to policymakers that one of our largest economic development investment programs still lacks the capacity to track its impacts and its return on investment to taxpayers and to local communities.