Under the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act two types of Renewal Community designations are allowed. One designation is an urban designation and the other is a rural designation. Mississippi sought a rural designation, which meant the State’s application had to met the following criteria:

The building blocks for creating the RC area had to be based on 1990 Census Tracts

The Census Tracts used to create the RC area had to be contiguous

Census Tracts, which were part of other Federal Designations such as Empowerment Zones and Enterprise     Communities were ineligible for consideration for an RC designation

Census Tracts included in the RC area had to have a poverty rate of 20% or greater

Unemployment within the RC area could not be less than the national average

The maximum number of people which could be included within the RC could not be more than 200,000

The Central Mississippi Planning and Development District used largely a computer generated and mathematical process to compile the State’s Census Tracts, which posed the most beneficial combination of the Federal requirements. Census Tracts, which were ineligible or noncompetitive due to being part of other designated areas and whose statistical levels showed too much affluence were not included in the application. In all, 50 Census Tracts, which encompass portions of 13 counties and 30 municipalities, were included in Mississippi’s designated area.

MISSISSIPPI’S RENEWAL COMMUNITY ZONE

Population	199,190
Poverty Rate	41.69%