Appendix: President's FY 1999 Budget -- Highlights for Cities
The President's FY 1999 budget includes substantial initiatives to close the jobs, education, and housing opportunity gaps described in this report. These include, but are not limited to, the following:
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Community Empowerment Fund. $400 million for a new Community Empowerment Fund -- expected to leverage an estimated $2 billion in private-sector loans to help create or retain as many as 280,000 jobs.
- Welfare-to-Work Housing Vouchers. $283 million for 50,000 new housing vouchers for welfare recipients who need housing assistance to get or keep a job.
- Empowerment Zones. $150 million in new funds next year and a total of $1.5 billion over 10 years for 15 new urban Empowerment Zones.
- Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan limits. Raising the home mortgage insurance limit to a single, nationwide limit of $227,150.
- HOME Bank: Leveraging the HOME Program. $1.55 billion HOME Investment Partnership Program includes a new loan guarantee feature, enabling States and localities to leverage private investment for large-scale rental housing and homeownership developments.
- Regional Connections. $100 million in Community Development Block Grant funding to encourage cooperation among urban and suburban communities around problems and opportunities of shared concern, such as economic development, housing, and sustainable growth.
- Brownfields. $50 million to redevelop brownfields in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
- Homeownership Zones. $25 million for additional Homeownership Zones.
- Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation. $30 million for a program to help renters with solid payment track records own their own homes.
- 100,000 Additional Section 8 Vouchers. Includes 50,000 for efforts to promote welfare-to-work vouchers, and 34,000 for homeless individuals and families.
- Increase Funding for Homeless Assistance Programs. Increase to $1.15 billion, including $958 million for local continuum of care strategies and $192 million for new housing vouchers to help homeless families and individuals leave the shelter system.
- Fighting Discrimination in Housing Markets. 73 percent increase in funding for fair housing activities.
U.S. Department of the Treasury
- Community Development Financial Institutions. $125 million to expand the breadth of the Treasury Department Community Development Financial Institutions program.
- Expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Increase the per capita allocation for each State from $1.25 to $1.75, estimated to produce an additional 150,000 to 180,000 affordable housing units over the next 5 years.
- Extend the Brownfields Tax Incentive, Welfare-to-Work Tax Credit and Work Opportunity Tax Credit.
- School Modernization Program. Federal tax credits to pay interest on an estimated $20 billion in critical bond financing of two kinds -- Qualified Zone Academy Bonds (expanded) and Qualified School Construction Bonds (new).
U.S. Department of Education
- Education Opportunity Zones. $1.5 billion over the next 5 years for Education Opportunity Zones in urban and rural school districts
- Zone Academy Bonds. Tax credits for lenders and investors when they buy State or local government bonds issued to finance reforms in qualifying schools.
- 100,000 Public School Teachers. Will reduce class sizes in grades 1 through 3, allowing children to attend smaller classes with fully qualified teachers.
Other
- Business Credit in Distressed Communities. Continued support for the U.S. Small Business Administration, Economic Development Administration loans and infrastructure grants.
- Access to Jobs. The U.S. Department of Transportation's $150 million a year welfare-to-work transportation plan as part of the TEA21 bill to reauthorize ISTEA.43
|
| 
