Advocacy Action Needed: Extend the Historic Tax Credit in NYS!
Updated March 2, 2022
The Preservation League is pleased to be working with State Senator Timothy Kennedy and Assemblymember Carrie Woerner on legislation to extend the state commercial and homeowner rehabilitation tax credits — and we need your help!
The credits are due to expire in 2024; we are advocating for them to be renewed a year early, for a seven-year period rather than the typical five, in order to give those who wish to use them confidence that the credits will still be available when their projects are ready to move forward. Early renewal is essential given supply-chain issues and other delays that pose significant challenges to rehabilitation project schedules. In addition to the extension of the credit program, we are advocating for the implementation of annual reporting requirements that would make it easier for legislators, advocates, and the public to understand and assess the usage and impacts of the credits.
We need preservation advocates statewide to help us make the case for the inclusion of the tax credit extension in the FY2023 State Budget, which is being developed right now! Here’s what you can do to help this month!
Call your State Senator and Assemblymember to request that they cosponsor the Historic Tax Credit extension bill, S.8238/A.9043. You can also ask Democratic legislators to send a letter to Assembly or Senate leadership to ask that the bill language be included in the one-house budget bill. For Republican legislators, simply ask for cosponsorship of the bill. If you haven’t made these calls before, they’re quick and easy to do. You’ll speak to a staffer who will take down your information and convey your message to the legislator.
Legislators and their staff may ask if you can send them memos of support; please share the League’s memo, and it would be a great idea to prepare one from your organization as well; feel free to use ours as a template! If you do, please send a copy to Katie at kcomeau@preservenys.org.
Calls in the next few days are really important, but longer term, we encourage you to set up a meeting with your Senator and Assemblymember to discuss the bill and why it is important to your district! Katie would be delighted to join you for these meetings to help make the case for the credits as a tool of economic revitalization statewide.
Other issues we are tracking in the current legislative session include a series of bills regarding the Erie Canal, including a celebration of its upcoming bicentennial and a mandated six-month operating season; we will share more information in future updates.
Please contact our Vice President for Policy & Preservation Katie Comeau if you have any questions about these or other legislative issues.
Banner image credit: Max Tiller, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons