2024 Public Policy Report

The New York State Historic Tax Credit (NYS HTC) is an indispensable tool for preservation and community revitalization. By incentivizing the reuse of our existing building stock, the NYS HTC has encouraged sustainable, environmentally friendly development, keeping valuable building materials out of landfills, strengthening existing walkable neighborhoods, reducing greenfield development, and protecting our historic buildings and downtowns. Large and small communities alike have used the NYS HTC to transform their Main Streets and downtowns. It is also a highly effective tool for housing creation: since 2010, the state tax credits have been responsible for the creation of 29,173 housing units, 15,400 of which are low- or moderate-income units.

In 2024, the Preservation League and our partners at the NYS Association for Affordable Housing, along with a coalition of preservation and housing organizations and practitioners from around the state, teamed up to advocate for important enhancements to the NYS HTC. These enhancements would create a program that will stimulate the development of more affordable housing, provide more money for important preservation and housing projects, and help limit unnecessary demolitions that threaten our environment.

Many thanks to NYS Senator Brian Kavanagh (Lower Manhattan) and NYS Assemblymember Carrie Woerner (Saratoga Springs) for introducing this legislation. While the bill passed the Senate, it did not receive a vote in the Assembly. However, this was a good first step in making the NYS HTC an even stronger tool for revitalization and will give us the momentum we need heading into the next legislative session.

The Preservation League also advocated for improvement to the Federal Historic Tax Credit, in partnership with national preservation advocacy organizations. Together we are advocating for improvements that would strengthen the credit and incentivize more preservation projects. Of particular interest to us is a proposal to increase the credit percentage from 20% to 30% for smaller Main Street projects. We will continue to advocate for these proposed enhancements in the next Congress.

This Public Policy report was pulled from our FY 23-24 Annual Report.