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Senate advances historic-preservation tax credit after technical amendments
Summary
Senate sponsors amended and advanced SB42, a bill creating a 20% tax credit for residential historic rehabilitation expenditures above a $10,000 threshold; fiscal note estimates a $200,000 FY94 general-fund cost based on $1 million in qualifying work. The measure was placed on the third-reading calendar.
Senate Bill 42, which would create a 20% tax credit for qualified rehabilitation expenditures on residential historic properties, was amended and advanced on Feb. 15. Senator Oakey, the bill's sponsor, offered technical amendments clarifying that the $10,000 threshold is applied to qualifying rehabilitation expenditures and that owner-performed labor is not eligible for the credit. Both amendments were adopted by voice vote.
Oakey told the chamber the credit is intended to promote neighborhood stabilization and rehabilitation rather than subsidize property acquisition. The fiscal analyst's note cited on the floor projected a FY1994 general fund cost of about $200,000, based on an assumption of $1 million of qualifying rehabilitation work and conservative assumptions about the resulting property-tax increases and sales-tax revenues.
Sponsors and supporters—including the Utah Heritage Foundation, League of Cities and Towns, Utah Association of Realtors, Utah Home Builders Association and Association of General Contractors—argued the credit would spur construction activity, increase assessed valuations and preserve older neighborhoods. Opponents and questioners pressed on the bill's scope (residential only), threshold and whether labor and acquisition costs are excluded.
After floor discussion the chair placed SB42 on the third-reading calendar with a recorded count of 24 ayes, 0 nays and 5 absent.
