Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Historic Preservation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee allows longer local property-tax abatement for rehabilitated commercial historic properties
Summary
HB526 would let local governments extend property-tax abatements on income-producing historic rehabilitation from the current roughly nine-year limit up to 20 years, optionally and with no state funds involved; the committee moved the bill forward.
The Ways and Means Committee approved HB526, a permissive local-option change allowing counties and municipalities to offer property-tax abatements on rehabilitated, income-producing historic commercial property for up to 20 years where local governments opt in.
Representative Newton presented the bill and said it applies only to commercial, income-producing properties and does not require counties to adopt abatements; it simply expands the maximum local option from about nine years to a total of 20 years to account for higher renovation expenses on commercial properties.
Newton told the committee the bill "has no state funds involved" and said it was intended to help localities that face higher costs to meet ADA and other commercial requirements when rehabilitating historic structures.
Committee discussion was supportive; the bill carried with a due-pass recommendation to the full committee without recorded opposition in the transcript.
Because the measure is permissive and local, its fiscal impact on the state was described as nil by the sponsor; local governments would determine whether to adopt longer abatements and under what terms.
