Tax credits available for historic buildings

HARTINGTON – There are state tax credits available to benefit historical buildings in Cedar County.

The Job Creation and Mainstreet Revitalization Act’s tax incentive program, commonly referred to as the Nebraska Historic Tax Credit program, was created by the Nebraska Legislature in 2014.

The intent of this program is to facilitate renovation and encourage economic growth in previously vacant or underutilized spaces, said Doug Elting, an independent technical consultant with Berggren Architects, Lincoln, who gave a Nov. 14 presentation to the Cedar County Board of Commissioners.

The program started in 2015 and provided up to $15 million in Nebraska Historic Tax Credits available annually through 2022.

The program, jointly administered by History Nebraska and the Nebraska Department of Revenue, was reinstated in 2023.

“Suddenly, they came into effect,” Elting said of the return of the Nebraska Historic Tax Credits. “What happened was, they attached the historic tax credits to a revenue bill and they went ahead and passed it with little fanfare, and here we are.”

In the past, qualifying projects could earn Nebraska Historic Tax Credits up to 20 percent of eligible historic preservation expenditures.

“In other words, if you spent $100, they would reimburse $20,” Elting said. “The way the system works is that if you do a project on a historic building . . . they will allow you to sell tax revenue bonds to the general public and recover 20 percent. Now it’s up to 30 percent. It’s a sizable amount.”

But the Nebraska Historic Tax Credit program is not without “some shoestrings,” Elting said.

“You are limited to what you can use them on,” Elting said. “It has to have a historic register license, which normally you do at this point. And you need to be able to make an application for it.” “It’s not really complex. Many counties have done so and other historic districts have done so.”

Wayne County took advantage of the program in recent years for a courthouse restoration project that included work on the roof and tuckpointing.

“Normally, you can expect to sell about 90 percent of the bonds,” Elting said. “There is a cost involved with it for a person to do that, so you can’t quite expect to get 30 percent back, but you should be able to get 90 percent of 30 percent, which is still a sizable amount of money.”

Elting said it’s a way for county’s to stretch dollars further.

“It gets some things accomplished that perhaps you’re not able to do before,” he said.

Board Chairman Dave McGregor asked if any building in the county listed on the National Register of Historic Places – such as the county courthouse in Hartington – would qualify.

“The courthouse is a prime example,” Elting said.

If a historical building was not on the National Register of Historic Places, Berggren Architects would help get it listed there.

He said the company is poised to help entities take advantage of the Nebraska Historic Tax Credits.

“We’ve put a team of people together that can take advantage of this (program),” Elting said. “In other words, we have a historian on staff who can complete the application for you. We have access to an attorney who has experience in selling bonds.

“We’re experienced in working through the application to make sure that it goes smoothly as well,” he said. “Not all architects have that experience and have done so.”

McGregor appreciated hearing about the program, though he wished the county would have known about it prior to a recent courthouse repair project that included tuckpointing work and cost more than $200,000.

“That was a fair amount of money,” McGregor said.

Commissioner Craig Bartels asked whether the Cedar County Historical Museum in Hartington could take advantage of the program.

“They have improvements they want to make,” Bartels said.

Elting said if the museum fits the program’s qualifications, it likely would benefit from Nebraska Historic Tax Credits.

“You do need some sum of money because there are some costs involved,” Elting said. “There’s kind of a threshold as far as costs are concerned.

“You don’t want to get into a situation where hiring the bond salesman costs more than the revenue you get back,” he said. “You do need to be careful of that.”