Live the dream

One of the worst excesses in the Trump tax cuts of 2017 was the tax holiday for investments in "opportunity zones." This was portrayed as a way to lift up the "distressed" areas of the country and their inhabitants, but a lot, if not most, of the tax subsidies are going to nothing of that kind. 

And you'll never know exactly to whom the goodies went – that information is top secret. It's one of the tricks of giving out money through the tax system.

Now, Portland being a hotbed for diverting scarce tax dollars to private developer weasels, you just knew we'd wind up as a poster child for the hypocrisy of this thing. Sure enough, the latest New York Times essay on the scams points out:

Half the money went to the best-off 1 percent of zones. That’s hardly surprising. With so many zones to choose from, much of the money flowed to those that were already rising or those that governors chose foolishly. Some 25 percent of New York State’s opportunity zones are in booming Brooklyn. The city government in Austin, Texas, one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the nation, asked for four opportunity zones. The governor allotted it 21.

Opportunity zone money is funding the revival of downtown Erie, Pa., and affordable housing in South Los Angeles, but a lot more of it is going to projects like a Ritz-Carlton hotel and condo complex in downtown Portland, Ore., and a Virgin Hotel in New Orleans. Self-storage facilities, which create hardly any jobs, are sprouting with opportunity zone money. So is luxury student housing in university towns, which are eligible only because college kids show up as poor in census tallies.

When it comes to giving tax handouts to the rich, Portland simply will not be left out.