The N.C. Senate should join the House of Representatives in restoring the historic preservation tax credit.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly ended the program effective New Year’s Day, part of an effort to remove economic incentive programs that favored specific industries. The state’s film tax credit program was another victim of the purge.
Area lawmakers are hoping to replace the film-tax credits with a grant program more generous than the current program, which has a $10 million cap. This fiscal year’s program closed after helping just three projects, including the Wilmington-based “Under the Dome” TV series.
Representatives under the dome in Raleigh — actually working in a flat-roofed General Assembly building next to the historic domed state Capitol — voted 98-15 on March 26 to reinstate the tax credits for historic preservation.
Senators parked the bill in the Ways and Means committee. Whether it passes in the Senate, or even emerges from that committee, is anyone’s guess.
Gov. Pat McCrory visited a historic house in New Bern recently to press for a renewal of the preservation credits. McCrory, a Republican who was formerly mayor of Charlotte, has been a champion of the program.
Before they were eliminated, the historic preservation tax credits had been used in 90 of the state’s 100 counties, rich and poor, urban and rural, according to the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. Susan Kluttz, head of that department, joined McCrory on the New Bern trip.
Since 1998, some 2,484 historic projects have been completed in the state, creating more than $1.6 billion in private investment.
Tax credits help builders recoup some of the costs of renovations and thus encourage preservation of our architectural heritage.
Historic preservation helps drive tourism as historic restorations and downtown areas often act as a draw for visitors. Investing in blighted downtowns by renovating historic empty buildings can help reverse crime and spur economic vitality.
It could help pave the way for Jacksonville to take the same road as downtown Wilmington. In the Port City, buildings that once housed X-rated movie businesses and rough hangouts in the late 1960s and early 1970s have given way to offices, shops and restaurants.
The tax value of renovated buildings is higher, providing needed revenue to cities.
We urge senators to restore the valued historic preservation tax credits so we can all learn to appreciate the rich architectural heritage our forebears have bequeathed us and benefit from its reclamation. Such credits benefit the whole community.
A version of this editorial first appeared in the Wilmington Star-News, a Halifax Media Group newspaper.
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