Governor Colyer, Commerce Department Announce Communities to be Designated as Opportunity Zones

Press Release

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TOPEKA – Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer, M.D. and officials from state government agencies have completed a review of Letters of Interest submitted from communities across the state to be considered for designation as Opportunity Zones.
Opportunity Zones are a new economic development tool enacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 designed to encourage long-term investments in low-income urban and rural communities. Based upon the number of low-income communities identified by the Federal Census, the Governor may nominate up to 74 census tracts in Kansas for designation as Opportunity Zones.
In February, the Kansas Department of Commerce announced it would begin accepting Letters of Interest from communities to have their eligible low-income census tracts designated as Opportunity Zones. Following the review of submissions, the Governor has determined that each community who submitted an eligible census tract will be nominated for at least one Opportunity Zone designation. The communities with census tracts to be included in Governor Colyer’s nominations for designation as Opportunity Zones include:

Allen County	Graham County	Osawatomie
Arkansas City	Great Bend	Ottawa
Arma	Greeley County	Parsons
Atchison	Hutchinson	Pittsburg
Belleville	Jewell County	Rooks County
Cloud County	Lane County	Salina
Dodge City	Lawrence	Shawnee
El Dorado	Leavenworth	South Hutchinson
Emporia	Lenexa	Stafford
Finney County	Manhattan	Topeka
Frontenac	Montgomery County	Wichita
Garnett	Norton	Wyandotte County
Goodland	Olathe
Gove County	Osage City

Due to overwhelming interest in the program, Governor Colyer will utilize the available 30-day extension from the U.S. Department of the Treasury to work with local leaders to finalize the specific census tracts designated within each community.
About Opportunity Zones
Opportunity Zones will provide tax incentives for investors who reinvest their unrealized capital gains into Opportunity Funds that are dedicated to investing in the Opportunity Zones designated by Governor Colyer. This program provides a tax incentive for investors to re-invest their unrealized capital gains into Opportunity Funds that are dedicated to investing in economically distressed areas designated as Opportunity Zones by the Governor. The program provides deferral and reduction of capital gains taxes when the gain is invested in a Qualified Opportunity Fund and maintained for at least five years. Additional tax incentives are available for investments held for periods of seven and 10 years.

Additional information about the Opportunity Zone program may be found at http://kansascommerce.gov/opportunityzones.