Rural communities are not under-taxed. They are under-resourced.
Public investment shapes whether communities can build infrastructure, grow local businesses, train workers, and create the conditions for long-term local economic opportunity.
But across rural America, many governments face a structural disadvantage: smaller tax bases, higher per-capita costs, limited staffing, and less access to flexible public funding. The result is an uneven playing field that makes it harder for rural communities to invest in their own futures.
CORI’s new report, Uneven Ground: Local Public Funding Gaps Between Rural and Nonrural America, examines how public funding systems can either reinforce rural disinvestment or help communities build lasting capacity.
Download the report to explore:
- Why people-based programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP are essential, but cannot close rural opportunity gaps on their own
- How lower local public revenue limits rural fiscal agency and long-term economic development
- Why competitive grant programs often favor places that already have staff, match funding, and institutional capacity
- How investments in infrastructure, workforce development, quality of life, and entrepreneurship can strengthen rural economic resilience
- What Portsmouth, Ohio, reveals about the power of locally driven, place-based public investment
Why this matters
Rural America has the talent, leadership, and ideas to drive the next generation of economic growth. But opportunity does not scale without investment.
To build stronger local economies, public funding systems must move beyond short-term fixes and support the infrastructure, institutions, and local capacity rural communities need to thrive.
Get the full report
Download Uneven Ground to better understand the public funding gaps shaping rural America and what it will take to build a more equitable, resilient, and innovative rural future.
Rural Private Investment Map
Click to enlarge.
This report was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
