On January 11, 2023, the Senate Taxes Committee heard testimony on the provisions that were included in last session’s Omnibus tax-bill-that-wasn’t. To refresh your memory – in May of last year, the House-Senate Taxes Conference committee worked out a bill that would have made the Minnesota Historic Structure Rehabilitation Tax Credit permanent, but the Legislature failed to reach agreement on other issues and adjourned without passing the Taxes bill, among many others.
At the recent Senate Taxes committee hearing, Rethos Executive Director Heidi Swank spoke on behalf of the RevitalizeMN coalition. Heidi shared information about the level of economic investment spurred by the historic tax credit, and emphasized the need to reinstate the credit and make it permanent. Other committee testifiers who highlighted the importance of retaining the HTC represented NAIOP and the League of Minnesota Cities.
Senate Taxes Chair Ann Rest has been a longtime supporter of the state Historic Tax Credit. We feel optimistic that, with Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic, previous Taxes chair Sen. Carla Nelson, and new Department of Revenue Commissioner Paul Marquart in key leadership positions, the MN Historic Tax Credit has an excellent chance of being reinstated in 2023. And in the meantime, we’ll enjoy the occasional bursts of humor that make their way through wonky tax policy during committee hearings.