Crafting Urban Partnerships

Abstract

Neighborhood Assistance Programs (NAPs) have become popular policies among the states as an alternative way to fund community-based organizations and as a way to provide various social services in the face of federal budget cutbacks. Through use of a tax incentive, NAPs seek to encourage business investment in community projects, while strengthening the bond between the public and private sectors. Analysis of NAP performance in three states finds that the programs and their tax incentive concept have many conceptual flaws. Consequently, NAPs fail as a reliable long-term mechanism for inducing high rates of meaningful private sector participation in social programs.