Update on Advocacy Efforts (July, 2025)

Shri Yoga Studios in Pawtucket received both state and federal historic tax credits in order to convert a former mill building into a yoga studio primarily serving adults and children with intellectual & developmental disabilities

With the 2025 legislative season behind us, we want to send a special thank you to everyone who helped us keep the state’s historic tax credit program alive. Whether you wrote to your representatives or signed our tax credit petition, your support was invaluable! Here’s an update on our advocacy efforts.

Funding released to State Historic Preservation Offices. Thanks to nationwide advocacy efforts, the Federal Historic Preservation Fund will finally release grants for 2025. State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs) — including the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission — rely on the Fund for such critical operations as federal and state historic tax credit review, an essential step for participants to receive their tax credits. While this relieves an immediate threat to the SHPOs, future funding remains in jeopardy. The White House Office of Management and Budget’s “skinny budget” proposal doesn’t include any Historic Preservation funding for the 2026 fiscal year. We are counting on you to join us in urging Congress to authorize funding for 2026.

Rhode Island’s Historic Tax Credit Improvement signed into law. Significant headway has been made to repair the state’s crippled Historic Tax-Credit program. Earlier this month, Governor McKee signed S0940 Substitute A as amended by the General Assembly. This law addresses the most serious shortfall in the program: the threshold requiring projects to pay prevailing wages. The threshold will rise from the current $10 million to $25 million in total project hard costs, effective July 1, 2025. This new threshold makes larger projects more feasible, which means more jobs for both union and non-union construction trades people.

We’ve scored a major victory for the future of the program, but to make Rhode Island’s program competitive with neighboring states, more reform and future funding are needed. Developers go where the opportunities are greatest. We’ll continue our advocacy for this crucial program in the coming months. Read the full update here.

At the Federal level, historic Tax Credits remain unchanged. Despite an outpouring of nationwide advocacy, no components of HTC-GO (the nation-wide effort to reform the Federal program) were included in the recent legislation passed by Congress. While disappointing, it’s worth noting that the tax credit wasn’t targeted for a rollback or elimination as it was in 2017. We will continue to partner with the National Trust and preservation colleagues from across the country to advocate for meaningful reforms to this vital program.