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Pine County board endorses Opportunity Zone ranking for governor nomination
Summary
On June 16 Pine County’s board approved a ranking of eligible census tracts for Opportunity Zone nomination, endorsing the HRA-EDA recommended list with Sandstone as the top-ranked tract to be submitted to the governor by June 30.
The Pine County Board of Commissioners on June 16 approved the Pine County HRA-EDA Board’s recommended ranking of eligible census tracts for Opportunity Zone nomination to the governor, a program created by Congress in the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 and reauthorized in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.
Economic Development Coordinator Lezlie Sauter explained that governors may designate up to 25% of eligible census tracts in their states and that Pine County’s HRA-EDA used eight predetermined principles to rank candidate tracts. The board approved the recommended ranking—including Sandstone ranked first—on a motion by Commissioner Matt Ludwig, seconded by Commissioner JJ Waldhalm; the motion passed 5-0.
The approved recommendation will be submitted to the governor by the June 30 deadline. The board’s action is a procedural step in federal Opportunity Zone nominations and does not itself authorize financial incentives or local funding; it simply forwards the county’s prioritized list for state consideration.
The board’s approval follows presentation of tract-level poverty rates and median incomes used in the ranking process. Next steps are submission to the governor and any further local coordination if state designation is granted.
