A Call to Arms - Join us next Tuesday, March 24 at the state capitol to lobby for Historic Tax Credits

As most if not all of you are aware, the Missouri Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit is currently under attack with proposed legislation in the Missouri Senate.

Senate Bill 45 otherwise known as the "Quality Jobs Act" has been laden with amendments which would cap the Historic Tax Credit and END THE PROGRAM after June 30,2011.

Other Missouri tax credit programs would be affected by this bill including: Brownfields, Low Income Housing, Neighborhood Preservation, TIFs and many others.

A growing group of architects, preservationists, developers, and others whose business would be affected by the passage of this bill are planning to go to Jefferson City next Tuesday, March 24th to push for removal of caps and sunset provisions for the Historic Tax Credit, or otherwise prevent the bill from moving forward as currently written.

Please consider joining us at the state capitol to show our support for the Historic Tax Credit. We will be meeting at 9:45 am on the ground floor of the capitol at the west entrance near the cafeteria. Then we will break off to talk to the individual senators. For more information please contact Anne Suggs with the Missouri Historic Preservation & Economic Development Coalition at 314.621.6115

Below is the pasted text from SB45 pertaining to the Historic Tax Credit. For a full summary of the bill, click here. If you can't join us, please take time on Tuesday to e-mail, call or write your state senator, representative and governor.

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No more than fifty million dollars in historic preservation tax credits may be authorized in fiscal year 2010. The act prohibits the authorization of historic preservation tax credits after June 30, 2010, unless a fiscal year allocation is made. Such allocation cannot exceed fifty million dollars per fiscal year. The department of economic development is required to limit tax credit authorizations for St. Louis and Jackson Counties, and the City of St. Louis to the percentage of each fiscal year's allocation that each such city or county bears to the state's population. Applications denied due to the limitations provided under this act will receive priority under the next fiscal year's allocation. No more than twenty-five thousand dollars in
historic preservation tax credits may be awarded per project for residential
rehabilitation projects. No historic preservation tax credits may be
authorized after June 30, 2011. (Section 253.550)
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Thursday's Post-Dispatch had a very good editorial on the situation, read it here.