Idaho’s Economic Advisory Council has forwarded 25 community recommendations to Gov. Brad Little for potential designation under the federal Opportunity Zone program, a tax incentive initiative that encourages private investment in housing and economic development projects. Little will make the final call on which areas to submit before the state’s September 28 deadline to file with the U.S. Department of Treasury.

What Opportunity Zones Are

The Opportunity Zone program was established under the first Trump administration through the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It allows investors to defer or reduce capital gains taxes by directing funds into designated low-income or underserved communities. The underlying idea is to leverage private capital for development projects that might not otherwise attract investment.

Congress made the program permanent last year through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, giving it a longer runway than its original sunset provisions allowed. An updated version of the program — sometimes called Opportunity Zones 2.0 — offers larger incentives for rural investments than urban ones and introduces a new reporting requirement intended to provide better data on outcomes.

Idaho’s Process and Priorities

Cities and counties across Idaho submitted 36 candidate tracts to the advisory council, which then ranked them by their likelihood to attract investment using data from the Urban Institute. The council ultimately recommended 25 of those tracts for the governor’s consideration.

The top three ranked recommendations are all located in Boise. Further down the list, communities including Rexburg, Moscow, Blanchard, Jerome, and Power County also made the cut, though they ranked lower than the urban Boise tracts.

Jerry Miller, a council participant, noted a recurring theme across the nominations. “A number of the nominations mentioned downtown and Main Street revitalization as one of their goals for having an Opportunity Zone,” he said, pointing to broad interest in commercial corridor renewal across Idaho communities.

Early Results and Ongoing Debate

Supporters of the program point to measurable outcomes in Idaho. U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, who traveled to Idaho alongside Sen. Mike Crapo to discuss housing issues, credited existing Opportunity Zone investments with generating roughly 700 new housing units and around 4,000 new jobs in the state.

The program’s record in rural areas has drawn more scrutiny. A 2021 analysis by the Brookings Institution found that while Opportunity Zone designations produced increased economic activity in urban areas, the same effect was not clearly visible in rural communities. The updated program attempts to address that gap by weighting incentives more heavily toward rural investments — a change that could benefit Idaho communities outside the Treasure Valley if the new structure proves effective.

The inclusion of communities like Blanchard, a small northern Idaho town, and Power County alongside Boise-area tracts reflects the state’s effort to balance urban investment momentum with rural development needs. Whether the revised incentive structure will close that historical gap remains an open question.

What Comes Next

Governor Little must review the advisory council’s ranked list and determine which communities to submit to the Treasury Department. The state faces a hard deadline of September 28, leaving limited time for the governor’s office to finalize its selections.

Once submitted, the federal government will make final designations. Investors can then direct capital gains into qualifying projects within those zones, taking advantage of the tax deferral and reduction benefits the program offers.

Idaho’s economic development agenda has drawn attention at the federal level in recent months. The state has been navigating a range of policy questions touching on housing availability, rural investment, and workforce growth — areas where Opportunity Zone designations could play a supporting role if private capital follows the incentives as designed.

The outcome of the governor’s selection process will likely reflect both the investment-readiness rankings from the advisory council and political considerations about geographic balance across the state.