Treasury Department Announces $1.4 Billion of QZAB Allocations

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department Friday announced allocations to states of $1.4 billion of qualified zone academy bonds for calendar year 2010.

In addition to the fifty states, the District of Columbia and all of the American possessions also received allocations under the program.

QZABs are taxable, tax-credit bonds that can be issued to finance improvements or repairs to school facilities in economically distressed areas. The school districts must fall either within either an enterprise community or an empowerment zone, or at least 35% of the district’s students must be eligible for free or reduced cost lunches.

The bonds can be used to obtain funds to repair or renovate school facilities, purchase equipment, develop course materials, or train teachers and other school personnel.

According to the nine-page notice outlining the allocations, issuers will be able to carry forward for two years any unused allocations before they expire.

California received the largest allocation, totaling $163.260 million, while Texas received the second largest at $128.252 million. The Northern Mariana Islands received the smallest allocation, just $868,000. Wyoming received the smallest allocation for a state, at $1.689 million.

Since its inception in 1998, Congress typically has authorized $400 million annually for the QZAB program. However, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 boosted the allocation to $1.4 billion for each of 2009 and 2010.

The first tranch of 2009 allocations were announced in April 2009, after ARRA was signed into law in February.

The principal authors of the notice issued Friday were Timothy Jones and David E. White of the office of associate chief counsel at the Internal Revenue Service.

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