April 2026: White Elephant Historic Tax Credit Enhancement Act (S.6021A Baskin/A10366 Hunter)

This legislation, introduced by NYS Senator April Baskin (Buffalo) and Assemblymember Pamela Hunter (Syracuse), would enhance the NYS Rehabilitation Tax Credit to incentivize the redevelopment of “White Elephant” properties throughout New York State. Here are some of the details:

  • White Elephant Buildings are defined as very large, difficult to develop, vacant structures having $50M or more in Qualified Rehabilitation Costs that have been vacant at least 10 of the last 15 years.

  • The proposed legislation would increase the per-project cap on the NYS Rehabilitation Tax Credit from $5M to $15M for these buildings.

  • The proposed legislation also extends the entire Tax Credit Program from 2030 to 2037, to allow time to plan and implement these larger projects.

  • We would anticipate no fiscal impacts to NYS in the upcoming fiscal year due to the time it will take to complete these large and complex White Elephant Projects.

On Monday, March 30, Senator Baskin held a press conference at Buffalo’s Central Terminal, to promote the legislation. You can see coverage of the event via WGRZ.

While there is a chance that this legislation is included in the NYS Budget currently being negotiated, it is more likely that passage would occur in the remaining legislative session ending in June. To that end,

we need your support to secure cosponsors for both bills.

The current sponsors for the two bills are as follows:

S6021A

Sponsor: Baskin (Buffalo)
Co-sponsors: Cooney (Rochester), May (Syracuse), Rolison (Mid-Hudson), Zellner (Buffalo)

A10366

Sponsor: Hunter (Syracuse)
Co-sponsors: Woerner (Saratoga), Stirpe (Syracuse), Barrett (Mid-Hudson), Burke (West Seneca), Conrad (Tonawanda)

Click here for a fact sheet on the legislation for you to share. I encourage you to reach out to your legislators and ask them to cosponsor S6021A / A10366. If they have already added their name as a cosponsor, please take a moment to thank them.

Please let us know if legislators have any questions by emailing jdilorenzo@preservenys.org.

NYSPLNYS Staff